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f 


'a^  ,PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^^ 


Purchased   by  the   Hamill    Missionary   Fund. 


BV  3520  .S67  1909 
Springer,  John  McKendree, 

1873-  .  .X  •  o 

The  heart  of  Central  Africa 


-Jiijiiiili^ 


Yorxc;    Ai-i^ka — ^\    Candida  ri.    loi; 
Education. 


;*     OCT  12  1909     *, 


CALSt^# 


c\* 


THE   HEART  OF 
CENTRAL  AFRICA 


Mineral  Wealth  and 
Missionary  Opportunity 


JOHN  M.  SPRINGER 


With  an 
Introduction 


"By 

Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell 


Cincinnati  :  Jennings  and  Graham 
New  York:   Eaton  and  Mains 


Copyright,  1909, 
By  Jennings  &  Graham 


#g 


To 


WHO 

HAS  SHARED 

WITH  ME 

OVER  3,000  MILES 

OF  TRAVEL  BY  NATIVE 

TRAILS  IN  AFRICA 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 

BY  BISHOP  J.  C.  HARTZELL. 

This  book,  which  gives  the  story  of  a  journey 
across  the  Continent  of  Africa,  is  full  of  incidents 
and  illustrations,  showing  how  conscientious  people 
may  be  led  in  ways  they  knew  not;  what  life  is 
among  the  natives  in  darkest  heathenism,  and  also 
describes  stirring  events  incident  to  the  advance 
of  civilization  northward  toward  the  heart  of  the 
continent,  especially  as  illustrated  in  the  extension 
of  railways  and  the  opening  of  mines. 

The  manner  of  writing  is  excellent;  the  de- 
scriptions of  countries  journeyed  through,  their 
people  and  natural  resources,  are  entertaining  and 
instructive;  while  the  stories,  often  pathetic  and 
thrilling,  of  camp  life  and  of  scenes  witnessed  on 
the  march  are  intensely  interesting. 

The  information  in  the  first  chapter  concern- 
ing the  beginnings  and  permanent  founding  of 
the  missionary  work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  Rhodesia,  on  the  east  coast,  will  be  read 
Mith  interest,  as  will  also  the  glimpses  given  in  the 

5 


6  Introductory  Note. 

closing  chapter  of  work  by  the  same  Church  in 
Angola,  on  the  west  coast. 

The  author,  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Springer,  B.  D., 
is  a  graduate  of  the  Northwestern  University  and 
Garrett  Biblical  Institute  and  is  a  clergyman  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  He  entered  upon 
his  work  as  a  missionary  in  Rhodesia,  South  Africa, 
in  1901.  The  same  year  Mrs.  Helen  E.  Rasmusen, 
for  two  years  a  missionary  on  the  Congo  under 
Bishop  Taylor,  was  appointed  by  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  to  the  same  field. 
These  two  journeyed  together  from  America  to 
South  Africa,  and  in  1905  became  husband  and 
wife.  When  granted  a  furlough  in  1907,  they 
concluded  to  cross  the  continent  from  Umtali,  on 
the  east  coast,  to  St.  Paul  de  Loanda,  in  Angola, 
on  the  west  coast,  and  from  there  sail  for  Europe 
and  America.  They  had  made  several  missionary 
tours  in  former  years  in  Rhodesia  and  Portuguese 
East  Africa,  and  were  prepared  to  realize  some- 
thing of  the  difficulties  of  the  journey  they  were 
undertaking. 

This  book  will  be  valuable  to  those  who  are 
studying  the  opening  up  of  the  great  Continent 
of  Africa,  to  the  civilizing  and  Christianizing  in- 
fluences of  our  day.  President-elect  William  H. 
Taft  has  recently  said,  in  one  of  his  admirable 


Introductory  Note.  7 

addresses  on  Foreign  Missions,  that  the  most  ac- 
curate and  valuable  information  from  foreign  lands 
comes  from  Christian  missionaries.  They  live  near 
the  people,  are  conscientious  observers,  and  write 
with  intelligence.  We  have  Mr.  Taft's  judgment 
confirmed  in  this  publication.  The  great  events 
in  the  exploration  of  the  continent  have  been  com- 
pleted and  given  to  the  world,  and  what  the  student 
of  Christian  Missions  in  Africa  is  now  anxious  for, 
is  definite  information  concerning  various  sections. 
Northwestern  Rhodesia,  through  which  the  book 
takes  us,  is  under  the  British  flag.  Government  has 
been  established  and  the  processes  of  advancing 
civilization  are  going  forward.  The  native  popu- 
lations are  sure  to  be  great  in  numbers  as  the  coun- 
try prospers.  The  agricultural  possibilities  are 
good,  and  enormous  wealth,  especially  in  copper 
mining,  is  assured.  In  a  few  years  there  will  be 
railway  facilities  from  both  coasts,  east  and  west, 
as  well  as  from  Capetown,  nearly  three  thousand 
miles  to  the  south.  But,  as  in  many  other  parts 
of  the  Continent,  there  are  yet  no  plans  for  the 
establishment  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Everything  is  favorable ;  the  appeal  of  the  heathen 
native  is  pathetic;  the  proffered  co-operation  of 
the  Government  in  lands  and  subsidies,  as  well  as 
that  of  the  new  settlers,  is  sincere. 


8  Introductory  Note. 

To  the  ministry  and  people  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  this  part  of  Africa  has  a  special 
significance.  Ever  since  Bishop  Wm.  Taylor  pro- 
jected his  line  of  missions  into  the  interior  from  St. 
Paul  de  Loanda  on  the  west  coast  in  1885,  there 
has  been  a  feeling  that  that  line  should  be  extended 
across  the  continent.  Later,  with  the  development 
of  the  work  on  the  east  coast,  my  heart  was  stirred 
with  the  same  ambition,  and  I  visited  the  country 
north  of  Victoria  Falls  and  received  offers  of  lands 
and  co-operation  from  the  Government.  This 
great  achievement  was  in  the  mind  of  the  author 
and  his  wife  when,  upon  their  own  initiative,  they 
planned  their  trip.  A  few  months  ago  the  Rho- 
desia Missionary  Conference  met  near  Victoria 
Falls.  About  fifty  Protestant  missionaries  were 
present.  Rev.  Robert  Wodehouse,  of  our  own 
Church,  was  president  of  that  historic  gathering, 
and  he  has  added  his  earnest  plea  that  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church  should  have  a  part  in  the 
salvation  of  this  section  of  the  continent.  The  con- 
cessions of  land  offered  to  him  correspond  in  stra- 
tegic value  to  those  made  to  myself,  and  now  to 
Mr.  Springer,  several  hundred  miles  farther  to  the 
northwest.  Somewhere  in  this  region  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church  ought,  in  the  very  near 
future,  begin  work.     The  conditions  are  all  favor- 


Introductory  Note.  9 

able,  and  one  well-equipped  mission  in  Northwest 
Rhodesia  would  be  the  first  of  others  to  develop 
eastward  and  westward.  The  call  of  God  is  clear. 
If  we  do  not  occupy  the  field  in  the  near  future, 
others  ought  to  do  so,  and  will.  It  is  the  old  ques- 
tion of  financial  resources.  Men  and  women  are 
ready  to  consecrate  their  lives  to  the  blessed  work, 
but  they  must  be  supported,  and  there  must  be 
money  for  transportation  and  buildings  and  equip- 
ment. 

In  recent  years,  in  view  of  the  marvelous  things 
which  have  transpired  on  that  continent,  the  Chris- 
tian world  has  been  saying,  "Africa's  day  has 
come."  That  is  true,  so  far  as  Divine  Providence 
can  usher  in  any  day  of  redemption  for  a  race  or 
continent;  but  Africa  will  be  redeemed  only  as  the 
followers  of  Christ  recognize  the  divine  prepara- 
tion and  furnish  the  means  to  make  that  prepara- 
tion effective. 

January  1,  1909. 


FOREWORD. 

YOUNG  AFRICA  READY. 

Sitting  in  the  ashes  around  our  kitchen  fire, 
which,  by  the  way,  was  in  the  open,  with  only  a 
piece  of  canvas  fastened  over  four  poles  to  keep 
off  the  rains,  was  a  half-grown,  half-clad  boy  of 
perhaps  thirteen  summers.  He  was  dirty — ex- 
ceptionally dirty  is  perhaps  a  truer  designation — 
and  his  sole  garment  was  a  strip  of  dark-blue  cot- 
ton cloth  two  yards  in  length,  which  was  tied 
around  his  loins.  The  cloth  was  so  dirty  that,  to 
the  uninitiated,  it  would  have  been  hard  to  classify 
it.  But  as  in  the  Broken  Hill  region  all  cloth  is 
divided  into  three  parts:  the  blue,  the  white,  and 
the  ginghams,  I  recognized  the  class  to  which  this 
belonged. 

He  had  sat  around  that  fire  perhaps  a  week, 
when  a  sudden  vacany  in  our  domestic  staff  re- 
quired a  boy  to  bring  water  at  once  on  a  Satur- 
day afternoon.  Benjamin  was  sent  to  ask  our 
male  Cinderella  if  he  would  do  the  job.      This, 

11 


12  Foreword. 

apparently,  was  the  opportunity  for  which  he  had 
been  waiting,  and  he  thenceforth  became  a  part, 
an  inalienable  part,  of  our  household  economy. 
The  inanimated,  dejected,  forsaken-looking  figure 
was  transformed  as  by  magic.  By  degrees  the 
dirt  disappeared,  and  with  an  increased  wardrobe 
he  developed  into  quite  a  respectable  youth.  He 
made  himself  incessantly  useful  (often  to  our  em- 
barrassment) in  the  culinary  department.  And  he 
further  announced  that  he  would  accompany  us  on 
the  trail. 

Although  in  a  week's  time  incredible  changes 
had  been  made  in  the  boy,  yet,  when  I  saw  on  the 
morning  that  we  were  to  start  that  all  ten  of  his 
toes  were  raw  and  sore  at  the  ends  from  jiggers, 
I  felt  that  I  could  not  take  him  on  the  trail.  I 
pointed  out  to  him  that  evidently  he  would  not  be 
equal  to  three  or  four  months'  steady  marching 
some  twenty  miles  a  day,  that  the  country  ahead 
of  us  was  unknown  and  the  people  wild  and  hostile, 
which  would  make  it  unsafe  for  any  one  who  might 
need  to  be  left  behind.  I  told  him  further  that  I 
could  not  afford  to  take  any  one  along  who  could 
not  carry  a  load,  and  reminded  him  that  he  was 
already  three  hundred  miles  from  his  home,  and 
that  he  might  not  see  it  again  if  he  went  along 
with  us. 


Foreword.  13 

In  vain.  He  said  that  he  would  not  be  left 
behind,  that  his  feet  would  get  well,  and  that  he 
was  able  to  carry  a  load;  but  go  he  must,  and  go 
he  would,  for  at  the  end  of  the  trail  was  a  school, 
and  there  he  would  stay  and  learn  the  Book. 

So  he  went  the  whole  fifteen  hundred  miles,  and 
we  left  him  in  the  school  at  Quiongua,  in  Angola, 
where  he  was  converted  within  six  months,  and  the 
transforming  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus  is  working 
wonders  in  his  heart.  That  is  Songoro,  or,  as  he 
was  known  to  us,  "Kitchen." 

There  was  a  big,  raw-boned  Mutabele,  Jacob, 
whom  I  found  in  a  camp  at  Broken  Hill,  a  man 
of  perhaps  thirty,  who  had  worked  for  years  on 
railroad  construction  as  a  "linker-in,"  for  which 
he  had  received  large  wages.  A  day  or  two  be- 
fore we  were  to  set  out  he  came  to  me.  "Master, 
I  want  to  go  with  you,"  he  said.  "My  heart  tells 
me  I  want  to  be  a  teacher  to  tell  the  people  about 
God." 

"But,  Jacob,"  I  replied,  "you  have  received  big 
money  for  years.  If  you  go  with  me  to  enter 
school  you  will  get  no  money  at  all  for  two  or  three 
years,  while  you  study,  and  after  that  as  a  teacher 
your  wages  will  be  very  small.  The  railroad  wants 
men,  why  don't  you  go  to  them.''  Also,  if  you 
go  with  me  you  will  have  to  carry  a  load  (this  was 


14  Foreword. 

a  class  of  work  far  beneath  the  station  he  had  oc- 
cupied for  years,  and  was  a  severe  test  for  him), 
and  there  will  be  but  little  money  in  it  after  all." 

"O  Master!"  he  exclaimed,  with  a  pathos  and 
earnestness  that  stirred  me,  "if  it  were  money  I 
wanted  I  would  go  to  the  railroad.  But  it  is  n't 
money  I  want.  My  heart  is  troubled,"  and  he 
placed  his  hand  over  his  heart,  "and  God  tells  me 
I  must  be  a  teacher.  I  know  that  the  path  is  long 
and  the  road  hard.  I  have  half  a  load  of  my  own 
things,  too.  But  I  '11  carry  all  I  can  for  you  and 
help  you  on  the  road.     I  must  go."     And  he  went. 

Word  had  gone  out  that  I  wanted  carriers  for 
a  long  trip,  and  one  quiet  boy  came  all  alone  and 
was  engaged.  He  said  that  his  name  was  "Jim." 
He,  too,  like  Songoro,  was  from  a  tribe,  a  differ- 
ent tribe,  where  no  missionary  resided.  He  said 
that  he  wanted  to  go  the  whole  four  months' 
journey  with  us.  A  week  later,  when  several  of 
the  carriers  were  beginning  to  grumble  and  wanted 
to  turn  back,  Jim  came  to  me  and  said  that  he 
wanted  to  go  to  the  school  at  the  end  of  the  trail, 
the  school  where  Songoro  and  Jacob  were  going. 
So  he,  too,  tramped  on  quietly  and  patiently,  like 
old  Jacob,  until  he  had  covered  the  fifteen  hundred 
miles  and  reached  Quiongua,  whence  comes  recent 
news  of  his  conversion. 


Foreword.  15 

We  had  gone  four  hundred  miles  and  came  to 
Kambove,  a  mining  camp  in  the  Copper  Belt.  We 
rested  there  three  days.  The  second  day  Songoro 
came  to  me  saying  that  he  had  found  a  brother 
in  the  camp,  working  on  the  mine,  and  showed  me 
a  lad  of  eleven  or  twelve  years,  named  Sondo.  He 
said  that  Sondo  wanted  to  accompany  us  and  go 
to  school.  Now,  the  word  "brother"  as  used  by  an 
African  does  not  necessarily  indicate  blood  re- 
lationship. These  two  boys  were  from  the  same 
tribe  and  village,  and  so  they  called  themselves 
brothers. 

Accordingly  Sondo  joined  our  caravan,  took 
his  load  of  thirty  pounds,  and  made  his  way  west- 
ward, where  he,  too,  has  been  converted.  It  was 
Sondo  who  discovered  another  "brother"  among 
the  "indentured  laborers"  of  a  Portuguese  planta- 
tion near  Quiongua.  This  man  had  been  seized 
and  carried  to  the  west  coast,  where  he  had  been 
sold  to  the  Portuguese  as  a  slave.  Alas !  we  had 
no  power  to  free  him,  but  the  other  four  boys  have 
escaped  a  worse  slavery. 

Thus  it  is  almost  everywhere  in  Africa  to-day. 
Young  Africa  is  waiting,  ready,  and  anxious  for 
something  he  hardly  knows  what.  And  he  is  ready 
to  work,  ready  to  walk,  ready  to  sacrifice  for  it. 
These  four  instances  are  but  a  few  of  the  many. 
Truly,  Ethiopia  waits  with  outstretched  hands! 


CONTENTS. 


FA6E 

Introductoet  Note,          .        .        -  5 

Foreword, 11 

I.   Beginnings, 19 

II.    Progress, 37 

III.  The  Call  of  the  Interior,      -        -  54 

IV.  Leaving  Broken  Hill,         -        -  69 
V.    To  the  Copper  Country,          -        -  86 

VI.   The  Tanganyika  Concessions,    -  101 

VII.    Mines  and   Missionary   Oppor- 
tunities,         .        -        -        .  120 

VIII.    In  Congo  Territory,        ...  133 

IX.    To  THE  Kassai,      -        -        -        -  151 

X.    Among  the  Bachiokwe,    -        -        -  175 

XL    To  Malange,          -        -        -        -  200 

XII.   Eetrospect, 213 

17 


CHAPTER  I. 
BEGINNINGS. 

Verily  facts  are  stranger  than  fiction.  And 
nowhere  is  this  better  illustrated  than  in  the  story 
of  the  Old  Umtali  Mission  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  in  Rhodesia. 

In  1896,  Dr.  Joseph  C.  Hartzell  was  elected 
Bishop  for  Africa.  Immediately  after  his  election 
there  came  to  him  the  vision  of  a  large  industrial 
training  institution  to  be  installed  somewhere  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  Dark  Continent  and  under 
the  flag  of  Great  Britain. 

It  was  in  that  very  year  (though  all  unknown 
to  him  at  that  time)  that  the  British  South  Africa 
(Chartered)  Company  decided  to  move  the  little 
four-year-old  town  of  Umtali  to  the  other  side  of 
a  range  of  mountains,  ten  miles  away.  The  Char- 
tered Company  had  decided  that  it  would  be 
cheaper  to  take  the  town  to  the  railway  than  to 
bring  the  railway  to  the  town. 

Although  the  town  was  so  new,  there  were  al- 
ready a  dozen  or  more  brick  buildings  with  iron 

19 


20      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

roofs.  When  the  question  was  put  to  Cecil  Rhodes 
as  to  the  future  use  of  the  old  town-site  and  its 
buildings,  he  replied,  "Make  a  mission  of  it." 

This  grant  was  still  providentially  in  the  hands 
of  the  Chartered  Company  in  1897,  when  Bishop 
Hartzell  first  arrived  in  Umtali.  Negotiations  be- 
tween him  and  the  administrator,  Earl  Grey,  re- 
sulted in  the  town-site  of  Old  Umtali  of  1,000  acres 
of  land,  together  with  twelve  brick  buildings,  and 
the  commonage  adjoining  it,  another  12,000  acres, 
being  turned  over  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church. 

The  company  had  compensated  the  owners  of 
these  particular  buildings  to  the  extent  of  more 
than  $100,000,  and  they  were  worth  fully  $75,000 
to  the  mission. 

In  1899  the  buildings  were  finall}^  vacated  by 
the  company  and  Old  Umtali  was  formally  dedi- 
cated by  Bishop  Hartzell  for  an  industrial  mission. 
At  this  dedication  there  were  present  of  our  mission- 
aries Rev.  and  Mrs.  Morris  W.  Ehnes  (Umtali 
Academy),  Rev.  J.  Hunter  Rcid,  Rev.  and  Mrs. 
J.  L.  DeWitt,  Mrs.  Anna  Arndt  (later  Mrs.  E. 
H.  Greeley),  and  Mr.  Herman  Heinkel.  Mrs. 
Bishop  Hartzell  spent  some  time  at  the  Mission  this 
year,  and  began  work  which  later  developed  into 
that  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society. 


Beginnings.  21 

The  next  year  Mr.  E.  H.  Greeley  joined  the 
forces,  and  in  June,  1901,  another  party  arrived: 
Rev.  R.  E.  Beetham  and  Miss  H.  E.  Johnson  (now 
Mrs.  Beetham),  for  the  UmtaH  Academy;  Mr. 
Geo.  M.  Odium,  Mrs.  Helen  E.  Rasmussen  (later 
Mrs.   Springer),  and  the  writer. 

In  course  of  time  the  jail  and  its  cells  were 
converted  into  schoolrooms;  the  magistrate's  office 
became  the  doctor's  dispensary ;  the  court  house  a 
hospital,  and  later  the  boys'  temporary  dining-hall. 
At  that  time  an  elimination  of  letters  by  the  boys 
made  the  sign  to  read  "Our  House." 

The  post  and  telegraph  office  became  the  hos- 
pital operating-room;  the  jail  compound,  the  play- 
ground ;  the  library,  a  residence  for  the  farm  over- 
seer ;  one  store,  a  residence  for  the  principal  of  the 
boys'  school ;  another  store,  a  stable  and  smithy ; 
the  bank,  a  house  for  strangers ;  and  sundry  office 
buildings,  dormitories. 

The  two-story  Masonic  Hotel,  having  sixteen 
rooms,  became  the  mission  home.  Its  large  billiard- 
room  made  a  spacious  drawing-room,  where  the 
District  and  Annual  Conferences  were  held,  and 
at  the  invitation  of  the  mission  became  the  gather- 
ing place  of  the  surrounding  white  population  for 
occasional  social  purposes.  Its  bar-room  was  used 
for  a  dining-room,  and  more  than  one  passing  guest 


22      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

remarked  that  this  was  the  first  time  he  had  seen 
tea  served  there. 

The  church  was  continued  in  its  sacred  use; 
services  being  held  for  the  whites  in  the  morning 
and  for  the  natives  afternoon  and  evening. 

One  beautiful  bungalow  up  on  the  mountain 
side,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  main  buildings, 
was  named  Hartzell  Villa  by  its  first  missionary  oc- 
cupant and  was  deeded  over,  with  thirty  acres  of 
land,  by  Bishop  Hartzell  to  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  for  a  girls'  school. 

Another  charming  bungalow  near  the  com- 
pound was  used  as  a  residence  for  the  mechanical 
teacher.  This  house  was  named  Oleander  Cottage, 
from  a  very  fine  oleander  tree  in  front  of  it. 

The  grounds,  too,  underwent  many  changes. 
The  straight,  unshaded  streets  gave  way  to  curved 
roads  and  walks  and  park-like  arrangement,  and 
was  set  out  with  shrubbery,  in  keeping  with  the 
character  of  the  institution. 

In  1905,  by  mutual  arrangement  with  the  gov- 
ernment, an  adjustment  regarding  the  land  was 
made,  whereby  a  large  part  of  the  commonage 
which  we  had  found  we  could  not  use  in  the  work 
of  this  particular  mission,  was  exchanged  for  va- 
rious tracts  of  land  elsewhere,  as  desired,  and  of 
an  equal  number  of  acres ;  the  mission  at  old  Um- 


Beginnings.  23 

tali  retaining  in  all  3,000  acres  of  land,  to  which 
the  Church  holds  final  titles. 

During  the  first  two  years  the  missionaries  at 
Old  Umtali  necessarily  gave  much  of  their  atten- 
tion to  clearing  up  the  grounds  and  carting  off 
the  loads  of  tin  cans,  broken  bricks,  whisky  bottles, 
and  quantities  of  debris,  with  which  the  place  was 
strewn.  And  they  also  put  about  forty  acres  of 
land  under  cultivation  and  began  school  and  re- 
ligious services. 

In  the  latter  work  there  were  serious  handicaps. 
There  was  almost  nothing  in  print  in  or  concerning 
the  native  language  of  Mashonaland.  The  natives 
generally  were  unwilling  to  help  the  missionaries 
to  learn  their  language  and  were  equally  indiffer- 
ent to  the  school.  On  the  whole,  they  were  inclined 
to  stand  apart  and  view  the  white  man  with  sus- 
picion, trying  in  vain  to  fathom  the  motives  which 
had  brought  him  into  their  country. 

There  were  no  interpreters,  no  native  teachers, 
no  evangelists,  nor  native  Christians  to  help.  None 
of  the  Gospels  had  been  translated,  and  there  were 
but  a  few  hymns  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  the 
vernacular. 

It  was  a  beginning  at  the  very  beginning,  and 
at  great  odds. 


24      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

The  ancient  rule  is,  "First  catch  your  hare." 
Now,  the  nearest  native  village,  or  kraal  (pro- 
nounced very  significantly,  crawl),  was  six  miles 
away  from  Old  Umtali.  The  natives  wanted 
nothing  of  th'"  white  man  except  money  or  its 
equivalent.  They  did  not  speak  nor  understand 
English,  and  none  of  us  spoke  or  understood  their 
language. 

An  important  phase  of  the  work  was  the  visi- 
tation of  the  people  in  their  villages,  and  in  this 
work  the  writer  took  particular  interest  after  his 
appointment  as  superintendent  of  the  Old  Umtali 
Mission,  in  1901. 

Taking  a  small  tent  along,  I  went  first  to  the 
nearest  kraal.  There  was  a  chieftainess  here  by 
the  name  of  Shikanga;  the  shi  is  from  Ishi,  Lord, 
and  kanga,  a  guinea  fowl. 

This  kraal  consisted  of  fifteen  huts  just  at  the 
base  of  a  steep,  rugged  hill.  These  huts  might 
easily  have  been  mistaken  for  round  haj^-stacks. 
They  had  been  placed  anywhere,  there  being  no 
regularity  in  any  ]\Iashona  kraal.  Men,  women, 
children,  dogs,  goats,  sheep,  and  chickens  often 
occupy  the  one  small  hut  at  night,  while  hoards 
of  rats  run  riot  over  everything. 

I  pitched  my  tent  in  the  midst  of  the  jumble 
of  houses,  for  I  had  much  to  learn.     I  soon  found 


Beginnings.  25 

that  added  to  the  rats  were  swarms  of  fleas,  nu- 
merous ticks,  and  several  varieties  of  other  vermin. 
After  that  one  season's  experience  I  ceased  to  camp 
inside  a  kraal  unless  I  had  to. 

But  the  worst  was  at  meal  time,  when  some 
twenty  or  more  naked,  dirty — O,  so  dirty ! — 
youngsters  all  gathered  round  me  to  watch  with 
open-mouthed  astonishment  and  hungry  eyes  every 
mouthful  I  devoured.  I  often  felt  a  sudden  loss 
of  appetite  as  I  beheld  them,  and  frequently  a 
goodly  portion  of  my  food  went  down  their  very 
willing  throats.  And  not  infrequently  what  had 
gone  down  my  own  throat  refused  to  stay  when  the 
smells  and  sights   got  worse  than  usual. 

Shikanga  gave  her  consent  to  our  building  a 
hut  in  her  kraal  for  the  use  of  the  mission  people 
who  might  want  to  come  for  a  day  or  a  week;  but 
she  clearly  stipulated  that  they  were  not  on  any 
account  to  preach  against  the  sin  of  getting  drunk. 
She  was  a  little  body,  not  weighing  more  than 
ninety  pounds,  but  she  was  the  daughter  of  the 
king,  and  she  knew  it  and  made  every  one  else 
know  it.     Her  word  was  law  in  that  kraal. 

I  engaged  about  a  dozen  men  to  work  on  the 
hut;  but  I  was  new  in  the  country,  and  most  of 
them  had  not  been  used  to  working  on  contract  or, 
in  fact,  much  at  all,  and  so  I  got  the  worst  of 


26      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

the  bargain.  They  played  up  on  me,  and  I  was 
unable  to  tell  them  just  what  I  thought  of  them. 

If  there  were  a  threshing  bee  or  the  breaking 
of  a  new  garden  in  the  neighborhood,  they  simply 
disappeared,  only  to  return  at  night  full  of  beer 
and  very  boisterous.  And  Shikanga  never  missed 
any  occasion  that  promised  a  drink.  You  could 
hear  her  a  mile  or  more  away  as  she  came  back 
from  one  of  these  social  events.  My  tent  was  just 
a  little  distance  back  of  her  hut,  and  one  night  she 
kept  me  awake  nearly  the  whole  night  singing  and 
yelling  at  the  top  of  her  voice.  The  charm  of 
novelty  of  living  in  a  native  kraal  soon  wears  off. 

Early  in  the  morning  while  it  was  yet  dark  I 
would  hear  the  women  grinding  their  millet  for 
the  day's  rations.  I  tried  to  get  used  to  eating  the 
thick,  chocolate-colored  mush  they  made  of  tliis 
meal,  but  it  was  too  gummy  and  contained  too 
much  grit  to  suit  me  for  a  regular  diet.  The 
natives  take  off  little  bits  of  it,  which  they  roll 
into  a  ball,  dip  it  into  some  kind  of  gravy,  clotted 
milk,  or  greens,  and  then  throw  the  ball  into  their 
mouths  and  swallow  without  chewing.  And  this 
is  the  proper  way  to  eat  the  sticky  stuff,  but  I  did 
not  get  the  art. 

Shortly  after  sunrise  all  the  girls  and  women 
would  have  left  the  kraal  to  go  to  their  gardens — 


Beginnings.  27 

for  it  was  in  May,  their  harvest  time — and  I  would 
be  left  with  (or  without)  the  men  who  were  put- 
ting up  the  hut. 

Towards  evening  they  all  began  to  return,  the 
women  and  girls  with  heavy  bags  of  grain  or  bun- 
dles of  firewood  on  their  heads,  and  possibly  a  baby 
on  their  backs,  the  small  boys  with  the  sheep,  goats, 
or  cattle  they  had  been  herding,  and  the  men  from 
visiting,  or  sometimes  from  threshing,  where  plenty 
of  beer  had  been  promised. 

The  women  then  cooked  the  evening  meal,  each 
wife  a  separate  dish  for  her  husband. 

Now  and  then  a  dilatory  wife  would  get  a  beat- 
ing, but  when  they  were  sober  the  men  were  rather 
inclined  to  be  peaceable,  and  before  eight  o'clock 
all  would  be  quiet,  each  woolly  head  covered  with  a 
cloth  or  blanket,  on  account  of  the  rats. 

Up  among  the  huge  boulders,  where  the  big 
baboons  used  to  come  daily  and  give  all  sorts  of 
impudence  to  the  people  whose  gardens  they  de- 
lighted to  rob,  was  the  village  smithy.  It  consisted 
of  a  circular  roof  of  poles  and  grass,  under  which 
three  or  four  people  might,  by  crowding,  sit.  The 
blacksmith  had  a  bellows  made  of  a  goatskin 
which  had  been  drawn  off  over  the  animal's  neck. 
Three  of  the  legs  were  tied  up  and  the  fourth  hind 
leg  used  for  the  nozzle,  the  neck  being  so  arranged 


28      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

that  it  would  let  in  the  air  during  an  upward 
motion  and  the  operator  would  hold  it  closed  while 
pressing  the  air  out  through  the  nozzle. 

He  made  his  own  charcoal,  and  by  means  of 
two  of  these  goatskins,  one  in  each  hand,  he  was 
able  to  get  up  a  blast  sufficient  for  all  purposes 
of  working  the  native  smelted  iron  into  axes, 
knives,  hoes,  spears,  bracelets,  anklets,  hammers, 
and  rings. 

One  day  I  heard  musical  sounds  as  of  a  flute 
in  the  distance.  They  drew  nearer,  and  soon  a 
peculiar  figure  dressed  in  a  very  scant  loin-cloth 
and  a  heavy  black  coat  swung  into  the  kraal.  He 
was  playing  on  a  reed  flute  of  his  own  manufacture, 
while  he  held  a  rattle  ornamented  with  an  ante- 
lope tail  in  the  other  hand.  He  came  up  to  me, 
and  for  about  a  half  hour  tooted  and  rattled  and 
danced.  At  first  I  did  not  know  whether  he  were 
a  lunatic,  a  witch  doctor,  or  what,  but  found  out 
that  he  was  only  a  wandering  minstrel  and  was 
doing  this  performance  for  something  to  eat. 

It  took  two  weeks  to  get  the  hut  finished,  plas- 
tered inside  and  out  with  black  mud,  the  mud  floor 
pounded  down  by  the  women  and  ready  for  occu- 
pation. This  was  the  first  hut  erected  by  our 
mission  in  a  native  village  in  Rhodesia  and  it  was 
dedicated  with  a  "crowded  house,"  which  gazed  in 


Beginnings.  29 

wonder  and  admiration  at  the  stereopticon  views 
of  the  Life  of  Christ.  This  hut  was  used  consid- 
erably during  the  next  four  years,  until  Shikanga 
moved  away  to  obtain  fresh  garden  lands. 

Leaving  one  of  the  missionaries  at  Shikanga's, 
I  next  went  to  Guta,  the  capital  of  the  Manika, 
twelve  miles  north  of  Old  Umtali. 

The  king  of  this  tribe  always  bears  the  name 
of  Mtasa.*  Each  successive  sovereign  builds  his 
town  on  a  new  site,  in  order  that  the  spirit  of  the 
former  chief  may  roam  undisturbed  around  the 
place  of  his  burial  and  where  he  has  reigned. 

This  Mtasa  had  selected  a  natural  fortress  for 
his  capital  near  the  top  of  the  mountain  Bingahuru. 
This  defense  was  necessary,  for  the  pastoral  Ma- 
nika were  ever  the  prey  of  the  bloodthirsty  Mate- 
bele  and  the  warlike  Shangani. 

There  were  troubles  within  the  tribe  as  well. 
When  this  Mtasa  as  a  young  man  should  have  suc- 
ceeded to  the  kingship,  one  of  the  strong  men 
usurped  the  place.  Young  Ufambasiku  (the-one- 
who- walks-by-night)  was  obliged  to  live  among  an- 
other tribe  and  could  only  make  nocturnal  visits  to 
the  capital.  Finally,  aided  by  the  treachery  of  one 
of  the  usurper's  wives,  he  was  able  one  night  to  lure 

*  The  m  in  this  name,  as  In  many  words  In  the  language,  has 
the  half-suppressed  sound  of  u  before  it;  a  has  the  value  of  the 
long  Italian  a,  as  In  arm.    Mta-sa. 


30      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

his  enemy  outside  his  hut,  cut  his  throat,  and  se- 
cure the  throne. 

Until  the  advent  of  the  white  man,  Mtasa  had 
reigned  an  absolute  and  despotic  monarch  of  the 
country.  "Whom  he  would  he  slew,  and  whom  he 
would  he  kept  alive ;  and  whom  he  would  he  raised 
up,  and  whom  he  would  he  put  down." 

However,  he  readily  entered  into  treaties  with 
the  British  when  they  came  and,  to  his  credit,  kept 
those  treaties,  though  later  on  he  chafed  sorely 
under  his  curtailed  power  whereby  he  could  not 
even  give  one  of  his  subjects  a  well-merited  beating 
without  being  liable  to  be  called  to  account.  So  he 
clung  the  closer  to  all  his  old  traditions  and  posi- 
tively opposed  all  mission  work.  And,  though  he 
welcomed  me  to  his  kraal  because  he  was  sick  unto 
death  and  wanted  me  to  cure  him,  he  would  not 
let  me  build,  but  set  aside  huts  for  my  use. 

It  was  not  my  first  visit  to  this  paramount 
chief.  On  a  former  occasion  I  had  had  a  rather 
amusing  experience. 

As  it  was  customary  for  all  of  Mtasa's  white 
visitors  (and  he  had  many,  particularly  the  kodak 
fiends)  to  take  his  royal  highness  a  present,  they 
usually  gave  him  a  blanket.  What  he  did  with 
them  all,  I  'm  sure  I  do  n't  know,  unless  he  bestowed 
them  on  his  favorites,  as  I  never  saw  but  the  one 


Beginnings.  31 

cheap,  cotton,  foully-dirty  blanket  which  covered 
him  while  he  was  sick.  But,  whether  he  used  them 
or  not,  blankets  he  wanted  and  blankets  he  got. 
Knowing  all  this,  I  once  essayed  to  develop  his  edu- 
cation along  industrial  lines  and  do  a  service  to 
humanity  by  presenting  him  a  fine  shovel.  It  was 
a  nice,  new,  shiney,  attractive  shovel,  and  I  had 
hopes  that  it  might  prove  good  and  suggestive 
seed.  Perhaps  it  did;  in  which  case,  I  am  sure, 
they  planted  it  deep,  for  I  never  saw  it  again. 

But  the  king  was  far  from  being  timid  about 
preferring  his  wants,  and  while  he  received  the 
shovel  with  as  much  dignity  as  he  could  muster 
while  hilariously  drunk,  he  literally  fell  on  my  neck 
and  failed  to  find  words  to  tell  me  how  delighted 
he  was  to  see  me  and  that  the  vest  I  had  on  would 
simply  complete  his  earthly  happiness.  Of  course, 
he  got  the  vest,  which  was  a  black  and  white  check, 
belonging  to  a  suit  which  I  had  no  love  for  and 
was  quite  willing  should  adorn  the  royal  back. 

Having  disposed  of  the  vest,  the  next  time  I 
took  him  the  coat,  thinking  that,  as  every  other 
gift  so  mysteriously  disappeared,  I  would  get  rid 
of  that  obnoxious  suit  for  good.  But  alas !  I  was 
destined  to  meet  that  vest  and  coat  all  through 
the  next  five  years  of  my  stay  there  in  Southern 
Rhodesia.     They  appeared  at  the  most  unexpected 


32      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

times  and  places,  worn  by  different  members  of 
the  family. 

Now  the  king  was  sick,  and  while  he  was  drunk 
most  of  the  time,  that  did  not  keep  from  him  the 
knowledge  that  probably  his  days  were  numbered, 
and  with  that  fear  hanging  over  him  even  alcohol 
could  not  make  him  hilarious.  So  he  was,  for  once, 
genuinely  glad  to  see  a  missionary.  He  announced 
at  once  that  he  wanted  medicine  for  himself.  For- 
tunately I  was  able  to  procure  for  him  the  needed 
treatment,  which  proved  very  effective  so  long  as 
he  was  willing  to  take  it.  But  with  the  return  of 
his  strength  and  some  degree  of  health,  he  sunk 
back  into  his  old  ways  and  habits  and  relapsed  into 
a  state  where  death  was  inevitable. 

It  certainly  is  an  advantage  to  any  missionary 
to  have  some  primary  knowledge  of  medicine  and 
dentistry.  My  lack  along  these  lines  was  a  con- 
stant regret.  The  man  who  can  efficiently  extract 
aching  teeth  will  win  the  gratitude  of  the  most 
savage  cannibal.  A  Wesleyan  minister  told  me 
that  he  had  frequently,  when  on  his  rounds  as  su- 
perintendent, extracted  as  many  as  thirty  teeth 
after  a  preaching  service. 

If  Shikanga's  kraal  impressed  one  with  its 
wickedness,  what  could  be  said  of  Mtasa's?  It 
was  a  kraal  of  about  150  huts  around  and  among 


Beginnings.  33 

the  huge  boulders.  At  the  back  of  the  kraal  there 
arose  from  700  to  800  feet  of  sheer,  precipitous 
rock,  the  top  of  the  mountain  being  not  unlike  an 
inverted,  round  pudding-mold.  The  kraal  itself 
was  situated  on  a  sort  of  shelf  two-thirds  up  the 
mountain  side. 

It  was  indescribably  filthy  in  all  parts  of  the 
kraal  and  as  void  of  moral  principles  as  of  sani- 
tary conditions.  It  was  notoriously  bad,  and  I 
do  not  think  its  reputation  for  evil  was  at  all  ex- 
aggerated. 

Every  night  the  sound  of  the  drum  proclaimed 
a  dance  in  one  part  of  the  kraal  or  another;  and 
a  dance  meant  drunkenness  and  vice.  All  of  the 
people  were  drunk  some  of  the  time,  a  part  of 
them  were  drunk  most  of  the  time,  and  some  of 
them  were  drunk  all  of  the  time. 

Coupled  with  the  tattoo  of  the  drum  came  the 
weird  shrieks  of  the  women's  "Yaie-yaie-yaie," 
the  noise  of  strife,  a  drunken  brawl,  or  the  sound 
of  wrangling  and  discord.  There  were  often 
sounds  of  hilarity,  but  seldom  any  of  true  mirth. 

One  day  the  noise  and  discord,  the  shrieks  and 
yells,  were  more  numerous  and  exaggerated  than 
usual,  and  I  went  to  see  what  was  the  matter. 
Every  one  was  running  past  my  hut  and  the  wails 
increased  in  volume  and  violence. 
8 


34      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Hurrying  to  the  place  nearby  where  the  peo- 
ple were  congregating,  I  learned  that  a  young 
man,  a  son  of  the  king,  Avas  dead.  I  had  known 
the  young  man  well  and,  indeed,  he  had  been  at 
the  last  Sunday  service,  where  he  had  shown  more 
interest  than  any  of  the  others.  What  did  he  die 
of.''  No  one  could  tell  me;  but  after  he  was 
buried,  my  native  helper  (Charlie  Potter)  said 
that  there  was  a  rumor  that  he  had  been  killed  in 
a  row  at  the  dance  the  night  before. 

The  news  spread  rapidly,  and  fresh  relays  of 
friends  kept  coming  to  the  bereaved  hut,  each  one 
adding  to  the  fearful  wails  and  lamentations  of 
the  women  folk.  The  men  began  to  make  prep- 
arations to  bury  him  at  once.  I  first  went  into 
the  hut,  as  did  the  others,  to  see  the  corpse;  but, 
to  my  horror,  saw  only  an  ungainly  bundle  com- 
pletely swathed  in  white  unbleached  muslin.  The 
Makaranga*  bring  the  knees  and  chin  of  the  body 
together  and  then  securely  bind  it  in  that  position, 
and  in  that  sitting  position  bury  it. 

Following  the  men,  I  found  they  had  selected 
a  place  under  an  enomious  boulder  which  closely 

*The  native  people  of  southeastern  Rhodesia  are  called 
Mashonas  by  the  white  men.  This  is  an  opprobrious  term  given 
them  by  the  Matebeli.  They  should  be  called,  correctly,  Maka- 
ranga, as  they  are  the  descendants  of  that  ancient  Makaranga 
nation,  the  Children  of  the  Sun. 


Beginnings.  35 

resembled  a  ship.  They  dug  under  what  might 
have  been  the  stern  until  the  hole  was  about  four 
feet  deep  and  diagonal  in  shape. 

In  three  hours  from  the  time  the  first  wailing 
began,  the  body  was  borne  out  of  the  house  on  a 
hastily  constructed  litter  of  poles  and  bark  rope, 
accompanied  by  a  frantic  mob  of  screaming  women, 
who  threw  themselves  down  into  the  dust  and  leaped 
into  the  air,  shrieking  in  a  blood-curdling  manner 
in  a  perfect  frenzy.  This  continued  until  the  body 
was  shoved  into  its  place  and  the  hole  neatly  walled 
up  with  stone.  Then  they  subsided  into  a  stolid 
apathy,  the  mother  and  wives  of  the  dead  man  in 
particular  being  the  personification  of  hopeless- 
ness, and  his  sister  wailing  out  over  and  over:  "O, 
Benzi,  Benzi,  thou  wert  a  lion!"  (The  lion  is  the 
totem  of  the  reigning  family.) 

That  evening  comparative  quiet  reigned,  but 
the  next  night  life  was  going  on  as  ever. 

The  dry  season  was  near  its  close  and  other 
duties  at  Old  Umtali  were  now  demanding  my  at- 
tention, and  as  the  king's  return  to  his  drink  had 
brought  on  a  relapse  and  he  had  fallen  into  a 
stupor  from  which  it  was  impossible  to  rouse  him, 
so  that  his  death  was  only  a  matter  of  a  few  days, 
I  packed  up  my  belongings  and  returned  to  the 
mission. 


36      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

But  in  the  three  months  among  the  people  we 
had  not  only  attended  the  king,  held  continual 
services,  got  acquainted  with  the  natives,  and  ad- 
vanced in  the  language,  but  we  had  also  been  able 
to  get  the  first  group  of  bo^^s  to  go  directly  from 
the  kraal  to  the  school.  They  were  mostly  grand- 
sons of  the  king — a  dirty,  almost  naked,  impudent 
lot  of  youngsters ;  but  they  were  bright  and  quick 
to  learn.  They  were  numbered  among  our  first 
converts,  and  some  of  them  have  developed  into 
excellent  teachers  and  evangelists. 

The  time  had  been  well  spent.  We  had  made 
the  acquaintance  and  gained  the  confidence  of  the 
people,  much  seed  had  been  sown,  and  there  had 
been  not  a  few  visible  results. 

It  was  still  the  day  of  small  things,  but  a  be- 
ginning had  been  made. 


CHAPTER  II. 
PROGRESS. 

Four  more  years  had  passed,  making  seven  in 
all,  from  the  time  of  the  dedication  of  the  Old 
Umtali  Mission,  and  it  was  no  longer  an  experi- 
ment, but  a  success,  with  the  work  established  on 
tried  and  approved  lines. 

However,  the  success  had  evolved  slowly 
through  many  distinct  stages — stages  common  to 
the  experience  of  most  missions. 

Varied  and  often  seemingly  incongruous  had 
been  the  work  and  activities  of  the  various  mission- 
aries. The  ordained  minister  had  been  called  on 
to  do  the  work  of  farmer  and  doctor,  ox-driver  and 
dentist,  machinist  and  book-keeper,  mason  and 
postmaster,  diplomat  and  mule-breaker,  cobbler 
and  architect,  carpenter  and  surgeon. 

The  physician  also  had  been  preacher  and 
mule  doctor,  teacher  and  cabinet-maker,  nurse  and 
painter,  cook  and  surgeon. 

The  layman  had  been  preacher  and  nurse, 
teacher  and  gardener,  doctor  and  poet. 

37 


38      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

The  women  missionaries  had  been  farmers  and 
teachers,  translators  and  nurses,  forwarding  agents 
and  preachers. 

All  had  itinerated  more  or  less  in  the  kraals, 
everywhere  sowing  the  seed,  here  and  there  gather- 
ing a  handful  of  ripened  grain  and  looking  for- 
ward to  the  abundant  whitening  harvest  of  the 
near  future. 

As  for  the  school,  for  the  first  year  or  two  the 
only  way  Ave  could  get  pupils  was  to  hire  them  to 
work  about  the  place  and  then  give  them  an  hour 
each  day  in  the  schoolroom.  Each  year  meant 
more  school  and  less  wages.  Then  came  a  time 
when  the  wages  ceased,  but  the  boys  were  furnished 
with  their  clothes.  The  next  year  came  the  rule, 
which  is  still  in  force,  that  every  boy  over  fourteen 
years  old  must  bring  an  entrance  fee  of  fifteen 
dollars,  and  another  fifteen  dollars  for  his  three 
years'  taxes,  and  all  of  the  boys  must  work  a  half 
day  at  some  mechanical  labor  about  the  farm  or  on 
the  grounds. 

To  be  sure,  these  changes  were  not  often  wel- 
comed by  the  boys  at  the  time.  But  as  the  desire 
for  learning  grew  they  adjusted  themselves  to  the 
changing  conditions,  though  seldom  without  con- 
siderable outward  protest. 

When   our   work   first   began,   not   having  any 


Progress.  39 

books  in  the  vernacular,  English  school-books  had 
to  be  used.  Later,  when  we  got  books  in  the  ver- 
nacular and  introduced  them  into  the  schoolroom 
to  be  used  in  conjunction  with  the  English  ones, 
the  boys  waited  upon  us  to  declare  indignantly 
that  they  had  not  come  to  school  to  learn  their  own 
language,  nor  did  they  need  any  of  our  teaching 
on  that  sub j  ect ;  that  they  had  come  to  school  to 
study  English,  and  English  only. 

It  took  some  months  of  quiet  insistence  to  show 
them  that  it  was  just  as  important  to  learn  to  read 
and  write  their  mother  tongue  as  English,  and 
more  so,  for  only  in  so  doing  could  they  come  to. 
understand  the  Bible. 

A  gratifying  feature  of  the  work  was  the  early 
conversion  of  practically  every  pupil.  Each  one 
became  a  factor  in  the  work  of  reaching  others. 
When  the  boys  went  home  at  vacation  times  they 
told  their  friends  the  Good  News  they  had  received. 
The  smaller  boys  often  started  a  little  school  of 
the  younger  brothers  and  sisters,  teaching  them 
hymns  and  sometimes  the  A  B  C's. 

Another  epoch  opened  when  we  had  about  ten 
older  boys  who  had  expressed  a  conviction  that  they 
should  become  teachers  and  evangelists,  and  had 
begun  training  for  that  purpose. 

One  vacation  I  took  this  group  out  and  made 


40      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

a  tour  of  about  four  hundred  miles,  using  and 
training  them  further  in  practical  evangelistic 
work,  in  which  they  were  constantly  engaged  there- 
after. 

During  the  shorter  vacations  they  were  sent 
out  in  groups  to  hold  meetings  within  a  radius  of 
fifty  miles  of  Old  Umtali. 

The  results  of  this  broadcast  seed-sowing  was 
that  soon  the  chiefs  began  to  send  in  requests  for 
native  teachers.  This  was  a  distinct  gain.  At  first 
the  chiefs  hud  absolutely  refused  to  even  consider 
having  schools  at  their  villages.  But  the  visits  of 
our  pupils  in  the  kraals  during  vacations  and  while 
on  evangelistic  tours  carrying  some  book  or  other 
always  in  their  pockets,  a  primer,  a  h3'mn-book,  or 
one  of  the  Gospels,  out  of  which  they  would  read, 
to  the  great  admiration  of  the  small  children,  had 
resulted  in  a  widespread  desire  for  an  education 
on  the  part  of  both  boys  and  girls,  and  the  young- 
sters were  beginning  to  show  a  restlessness  and  dis- 
content at  the  kraal  life.  They  were  constantly 
running  away  to  the  mission  to  go  to  school.  So 
it  was  no  longer  a  question  of  school  or  no  scliool, 
but  of  schools  in  the  kraals  or  at  the  Mission.  Ac- 
cordingly the  chiefs  were  compelled  to  capitulate, 
and  by  1906  requests  for  teachers  to  come  and  live 
in  the  kraals  began  to  multiply.     We  had  none  as 


ir. 


> 


2  ^ 


CI? 


Progress.  41 

yet  fully  prepared,  but  we  were  able  to  open  work 
at  one  kraal  six  miles  away  and  send  a  senior  stu- 
dent out  there  every  afternoon  to  teach  school. 
This  place  willingly  helped  to  build  their  own 
mud-and-pole  schoolhouse,  and  soon  there  was  not 
only  a  flourishing  school,  but  there  were  conver- 
sions, and  the  Sunday  circuit  extended  to  twelve 
kraals. 

His  experience  at  tliis  place,  Mwandiambila's, 
fitted  Solomon  Nsingo  to  take  an  out-station  the 
next  year.  It  was  a  singular  coincidence  that  the 
first  call  to  be  answered  for  a  resident  native 
teacher  should  have  been  made  by  Shikanga  her- 
self. She  who  had  placed  herself  on  record  as  ab- 
solutely and  forever  determined  that  her  children 
should  never  be  taught  "books,"  and  who  had 
stipulated  that  we  must  not  preach  against  getting 
drunk,  now  welcomed  Solomon  and  his  wife,  Ma- 
rita,  to  her  kraal  and  helped  to  build  the  school 
and  living-house. 

A  few  months  later  there  were  several  conver- 
sions, and  among  them  Shikanga,  In  a  recent  let- 
ter, Solomon  wrote  me:  "But  also  here  with  thirty 
peoples  who  turn  back  to  God  our  Fathers  who  art 
in  heaven  because  befor  in  this  Shikanga  place  it 
was  very  trouble  but  now  God  will  bee  at  them 
and  so  God  heard  my  prayers  and  also  He  draw 


42      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

them  to  inc.  I  have  abelievers  about  thirty  boys 
and  now  Chiefe  Chikanga  she  leave  all  bad  deeds 
which  she  was  doing  long  ago." 

One  of  the  first  girls  who  came  to  the  mission 
to  stay  was  Mukonyerwa,  whose  mother,  Muledzwa, 
was  a  sister  of  Shikanga  and  of  the  young  Mtasa. 
When  the  girl  came  she  was  at  once  followed  by 
her  mother,  who  made  a  fearful  row  and  insisted 
that  the  girl  should  return  to  her  kraal  and  that 
we  should  drive  her  away  from  the  mission. 

As  she  could  not  avail  anything  she  went  away, 
and  came  back  the  next  week  with  Mtasa  and  some 
twenty  armed  men,  who  demanded  the  girl.  There 
was  a  stormy  session  several  hours  long,  but  the 
girl  firmly  and  positively  refused  to  go  with  her 
mother,  and  so  they  had  to  leave  her. 

In  the  course  of  six  months,  Muledzwa's  visits 
became  less  and  less  stormy,  until  at  last  she  be- 
gan to  view  her  daughter's  growing  accomplish- 
ments of  sewing,  reading,  and  writing  with  pride. 
A  year  later  she  said  that  she  should  like  her 
daughter  to  marry  a  native  teacher  and  come  u]) 
to  live  in  her  knial,  where  she  would  build  tlieni 
a  hut  and  schoolhousc.  However,  her  daughter 
was  placed  in  a  neighborliood  village  with  her 
husband,  and  Vurungu,  ]Muledzwa's  only  son,  has 
been  appointed  to  the  school  and  Church  in  his 
mother's  kraal. 


Progress.  43 

The  young  Mtasa,  like  his  old  father,  was 
strongly  opposed  to  mission  work.  On  one  of  my 
visits  to  his  kraal,  though  he  himself  was  very 
friendly  and  affable,  his  brother  told  me  confiden- 
tially in  great  bitterness  of  spirit  that  all  the  boys 
and  girls  were  leaving  the  kraal  for  the  mission. 

I  told  him  the  only  remedy  for  it  was  to  have 
a  teacher  come  and  open  a  school  at  the  kraal, 
which  advice  he  promptly  rejected  with  scorn. 

But  the  boys  and  girls  continued  to  come  to 
Old  Umtali.  The  sub-chiefs  were  calling  for 
teachers,  that  they  might  hold  their  children  at 
home,  and  so  Mtasa  yielded  at  last.  In  1907,  he 
made  an  official  call  on  Bishop  Hartzell  and  asked 
that  a  white  man  be  sent  to  open  up  school  work 
at  the  capital.  The  request  was  granted,  land  was 
purchased  adjoining  tlie  native  reserve,  and  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Coffin  are  there  at  present  in  the  midst 
of  a  flourishing  work,  which  includes  a  circuit  of 
some  ten  out-stations  in  charge  of  young  men  who 
were  trained  at  Old  Umtali,  all  of  whom  have  mar- 
ried girls  from  the  girls'  school  there. 

One  of  the  greatest  changes  had  taken  place  in 
connection  with  the  work  among  the  girls  and 
women. 

In  1901,  Helen  E.  Rasmussen  was  sent  out  by 
the  Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  to  take 


44      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

up  this  work.  As  there  were  no  girls  nor  women 
at  the  station,  she,  too,  had  to  go  out  into  the 
kraals  to  find  them. 

She  found  them  more  indifferent  to  the  mission 
and  school  than  the  boys  and  far  more  tenacious 
of  the  traditions  of  their  ancestors.  But  nearly  all 
of  them  needed  medical  treatment,  so  that  large 
numbers  came  to  the  dispensary  daily.  They  not 
only  got  their  medicine,  but  they  stopped  to  chat 
and  to  hear  the  "machine,"  the  baby  organ.  Soon 
the  girls  flocked  to  her  hut  in  large  numbers,  and 
some  days  there  were  services  nearly  all  day. 

But  they  scorned  the  idea  of  a  native  woman 
learning  to  read.  Why  should  she.''  They  knew 
as  much  as  their  mothers  (most  of  them  knew 
more)  and  the}-  could  see  no  advantage  in  learn- 
ing at  school.  They  were  all  engaged  to  be  mar- 
ried— some  of  them  from  birth,  some  even  before 
birth;  for  the  girl  is  considered  an  asset  bj'  her 
father  against  his  liabilities. 

To  be  sure,  the  girls  did  not  always  want  to 
marry  the  man  chosen  for  them,  and  some  of 
tluni  rebelled  openly,  but  on  the  whole  they  had 
had  the  custom  instilled  into  their  minds  from 
babyhood  as  being  the  only  proper  tiling,  and 
most  of  the  girls  were  proud  of  the  engagement, 
putting  off  the  evil  day  of  marriage  as  long  as 


Progress.  45 

possible  and  in  the  meantime  not  binding  them- 
selves to  any  hard  and  fast  code  of  morals. 

The  condition  of  their  lives  and  morals  was 
enough  to  make  one  shudder.  And  the  worst  of  it 
was  that,  knowing  nothing  better,  they  were  fairly 
well  satisfied. 

After  the  visits  of  the  "Missis"  to  the  kraals, 
the  girls  frequently  came  to  visit  her  at  Old  Um- 
tali,  stajnng  a  night  or  several  days. 

One  girl  came  and  stayed  eight  months,  but 
she,  alas!  was  an  outcast,  having  cut  her  upper 
teeth  first.  According  to  the  custom  of  her  people, 
she  should  have  been  buried  alive,  for  to  cut  the 
upper  teeth  first  is  a  sign  that  the  child  has  a 
devil  or  is  bewitched. 

For  some  reason  this  girl  had  not  been  buried 
by  her  mother  and  had  grown  up  into  an  extra- 
ordinarily beautiful  young  woman,  but  no  man 
in  the  country  dared  to  marry  her. 

It  was  a  native  boy  named  Jonas  who  re- 
luctantly offered  the  explanation  about  Shakeni. 
He  said:  "You  see,  she  is  bewitched  and  if  any 
man  should  marry  her,  he  would  die." 

"How  soon  would  he  die  .f'"  was  the  inquiry ; 
"as  soon  as  they  got  married  .f^"  Jonas  was  cau- 
tious. "He  might,  and  then  he  might  not ;  he  could 
not  say  for  sure." 


46      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

"Well,  would  he  die  in  a  week,  or  a  month?" 

"Do  n't  jou  see,  Missis,"  exclaimed  the  cross- 
questioned  boy  in  exasperation,  he  might  live  a 
day  and  he  might  live  a  year.  And  they  might 
have  children,  and  the  children  might  grow  up, 
but  sooner  or  later  he  would  surel}'  die." 

This  statement  was  indeed  incontrovertible 
since,  as  the  "Missis"  told  Jonas,  from  the  time  of 
Adam  down  every  man  who  has  married  a  woman 
has  met  a  similar  fate.  But  though  Jonas  had  a 
strong  sense  of  humor,  now  that  a  native  super- 
stition was  involved,  he  felt  that  any  other  view 
of  the  case  was  rank  heresy,  of  which  he  would 
have  no  part. 

This  girl,  to  repeat,  stayed  eight  montlis,  and 
then  went  back  to  her  mother.  Four  years  later 
she  was  legally  married  to  a  man  from  Cape 
Colony,  a  mulatto,  and  later  came  back  to  the  girls' 
school,  with  his  permission,  while  he  was  driving 
cattle  about  the  country,  or,  in  South  African 
parlance,  "riding  transport." 

But  with  the  exception  of  this  one  girl,  no 
others  came  for  over  three  years,  and,  as  the  boys 
were  increasing  steadily  in  numbers,  the  situation 
was  serious.  So  we  put  the  matter  before  them 
clearly :  How  that  they  would  soon  be  tlirough 
school  and   would  need  Christian   wives  and  girls 


Progress.  47 

who  could  help  them  in  their  work  as  evangelists 
and  teachers,  and  they  began  to  talk  to  the  girls 
about  coming  to  school.  Brothers  began  urging 
their  sisters,  and  now  and  then  one  of  them  would 
urge  another  boy's  sister  to  come. 

In  1904,  Gumba,  a  granddaughter  of  the 
old  Mtasa,  and  a  niece  of  the  young  Mtasa, 
came  to  stay.  About  five  women  were  at  that  time 
living  on  the  place  with  their  husbands.  After 
Gumba's  arrival  other  girls  began  to  come,  mostly 
those  who  had  been  in  constant  touch  with  the 
missionary  from  her  first  visits  to  the  kraals  and 
who  had  friends  or  brothers  in  the  boys'  school. 

Of  course,  the  arrival  of  these  girls  caused  a 
violent  protest  from  their  irate  parents.  These 
girls  represented  "vested  interests"  to  the  extent 
of  from  four  to  ten  head  of  cattle  each,  to  be  paid 
to  her  father  on  her  marriage.  It  was  not  strange 
that  the  whole  tribe  stood  solidly  against  any  in- 
novation which  should  free  the  girls  from  their 
claim. 

But  once  a  break  in  the  old  regime  had  been 
made  and  the  girls  began  to  find  out  that  the 
mission  was  veritably  a  City  of  Refuge,  they 
began  to  rebel  against  the  unfit  marriages  ar- 
ranged for  them  by  their  parents,  and  to  flee  to  us. 
We   had    to    spend   days   trying   to   reason   with 


48      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

angry  and  prejudiced  parents  each  time  a  girl 
arrived.  But  the  girls  were  firm  in  their  deter- 
mination that  they  would  not  be  sold  as  mere 
cattle  and  that  they  wanted  to  learn.  The  gov- 
ernment was  on  their  side,  and  so  they  stayed,  and 
their  numbers  increased  from  that  on.  A  con- 
ciliatory spirit  toward  the  parents  soon  won  them 
over  to  at  least  a  resigned  attitude,  and  in  a  few 
cases  to  positive  approval.  A  few  of  the  young 
men  had  arranged  with  the  girls  before  coming 
to  marry  them  after  completing  the  school  course. 
The  other  girls  had  several  offers  of  marriage 
each  soon  after  their  arrival. 

After  her  marriage  on  New  Year's,  1905,  ]Mrs. 
Springer  continued  to  carry  on  the  girls'  work 
for  seven  months,  by  which  time  there  were  nine 
girls  in  the  school. 

In  August,  1905,  the  Woman's  Foreign  ]\Iis- 
sionary  Society  transferred  Miss  Virginia  Sworm- 
stedt  (later  Mrs.  Coffin)  from  Inhambane  to  this 
school.  And  early  in  1907  Miss  Sophia  Coffin  ar- 
rived and  was  soon  placed  in  charge. 

The  school  has  had  a  steady  growth  and  in- 
crease in  numbers,  and  already  several  of  the  girls 
trained  here  have  married  native  evangelists  and 
arc  efficient  helpers  in  reaching  the  women  and 
girls  on  out-stations. 


Progress.  49 

A  friend  gave  $5,000  for  a  mucli-needed  dor- 
mitory to  accommodate  one  hundred  boarders, 
which  was  dedicated  in  June,  1908.  At  the  last 
report  there  were  seventy-five  girls  in  the  school. 

The  industrial  work  developed  more  slowly. 
Naturally  it  took  the  native  longer  to  see  the 
reason  for  hard  and  steady  work  than  for  learning. 

Apprentices  could  not  be  expected  to  apply  to 
learn  the  trades  until  as  pupils  they  had  com- 
pleted the  course  in  the  school  proper.  From  the 
first  the  farm  had  required  a  good  deal  of  atten- 
tion. The  fields  had  increased  from  forty  to  one 
hundred  acres,  the  principal  crop  being  Indian 
corn,  maize  which  is  known  through  South  Africa 
as  "mealies,"  The  farm  had  more  than  its  full 
share  of  difficulties  and  setbacks. 

Kipling  tersely  describes  the  conditions  in 
Rhodesia  in  his  inimitable  way: 

"  Plague  on  pestilence  outpoured, 
Locusts  on  the  greening  sward 
And  murrain  on  the  cattle ! " 

Most  of  our  cattle  died  with  Texas  fever  and 
we  had  to  sell  the  rest  before  they  had  a  chance 
to  die.  Our  one  horse  died  of  horse-sickness;  one 
by  one  the  mules  and  donkeys  shuffled  off  their 
leather  reims  and  were  no  more  from  pyasmia; 
4 


50      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

drought  brought  a  year's  famine,  and  the  locusts 
were  an  abiding  plague  present  with  us  at  the 
greening  season. 

In  1903-1904!  was  our  hardest  3' ear,  a  time 
of  general  drought  in  the  country.  Our  increas- 
ing school  either  had  to  be  fed  or  sent  back  to 
their  hungry  kraals,  and  that  was  not  to  be 
thought  of.  The  routine  work  had  to  be  car- 
ried on,  so  that  with  loss  of  animals  and  crops, 
the  mission  was  put  in  hard  straits  financially. 
However,  the  next  year  we  reaped  4,000  bushels 
of  corn,  and,  with  a  good  market  which  had  sprung 
up  in  the  mining  camps  all  around  us,  the  agricul- 
tural department  of  the  mission  has  met  its  own  ex- 
penses ever  since. 

Important  changes  had  taken  place  in  the  im- 
mediate neighborhood  of  the  mission.  Although 
situated  on  the  gold  belt,  for  the  first  five  years 
of  the  mission  there  were  no  mining  activites  within 
seven  miles  of  us.  In  190-i,  had  come  a  revival  of 
the  early  boom  and  numerous  white  men  were  en- 
gaged in  prospecting  and  proving  claims  all 
about  us.  There  were  twelve  mines  and  two  crusli- 
ing  batteries  within  two  miles  of  us. 

These  mines  employed  hundreds  of  natives, 
and  permission  was  readily  granted  us  to  do  evan- 
gelistic work  among  them.     Some  of  these  natives 


Progress.  51 

had  come  hundreds  of  miles  from  their  kraals,  and 
most  of  them  had  never  heard  of,  much  less  seen, 
a  missionary.  The  mine  compounds  present  a 
splendid  opportunity  to  reach  hundreds  with  the 
gospel.  It  gave  us  also  an  exceptional  oppor- 
tunity for  training  our  senior  boys  in  the  prac- 
tical work  of  winning  souls  and  of  reaching  the 
totally  raw  heathen.  These  mines  greatly  en-^ 
hanced  the  value  of  Old  Umtali  as  a  training 
center. 

Since  1901  other  missionaries  were  added  to 
our  numbers — Dr.  Samuel  Gurney,  Rev.  and  Mrs. 
James  E.  Ferris,  who  were  for  two  years  in  charge 
of  the  Umtali  Academy ;  Rev.  Shirley  D.  Coffin,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  E.  L.  Sechrist,  and  Mr.  G.  A.  Roberts, 
all  of  whom  are  now  on  the  field. 

i\Ir.  M.  B.  Spears  was  also  in  the  employ  of 
the  mission  as  farm  overseer  and  mechanical  as- 
sistant for  over  three  years. 

As  the  time  for  furlough  drew  near,  after 
more  than  five  years  of  service,  it  was  gratifying 
on  looking  back  over  the  vista  of  those  years  to 
note  the  changes  which  had  come  to  pass. 

Let  me  summarize  them  briefly: 

1.  From  an  indifferent  and  suspicious  atti- 
tude, the  natives  were  now  friendly. 

2.  Instead   of   ignoring   our   school,   the   out- 


52      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

lying    kraals    were   beginning    to    ask    for    native 
teachers  and  preachers. 

3.  Instead  of  having  no  interpreters,  teachers, 
or  native  helpers,  we  now  had  nearly  a  dozen  ready 
to  be  placed  on  out-stations,  and  to  assist  the  white 
missionaries  at  Old  Umtali. 

4.  From  a  half  dozen  pupils  the  school  had 
grown  to  nearly  a  hundred  bo^'s  and  girls. 

5.  The  fields  were  now  white  for  the  harvest, 
in  the  reaping  of  which  our  trained  native  workers 
were  taking  an  active  part. 

6.  In  short,  as  was  said  at  the  beginning  of 
the  chapter,  the  work  of  the  mission  had  been 
firm!}'  established  on  tried  and  approved  lines. 

The  latest  information  from  Old  I^mtali  is 
that  there  are  over  two  hundred  boarding  pupils 
in  the  schools,  notwithstanding  the  large  number 
of  day  schools  which  have  been  opened  up  in  the 
vicinity  and  which  are  also  well  attended,  and 
students  arc  being  turned  awa}'  for  lack  of  room. 

In  Umtali  and  Penhalonga,  Churches  for 
whites  have  been  organized,  and  at  each  point  a 
large  brick  church  has  been  built.  In  Umtali  we 
have  had  an  academy,  a  grammar  and  high  school 
for  European  children  which  has  had  an  average 
attendance  of  about  fifty  pu})ils. 

In  these  two  centers  Churches  for  the  natives 


Progress.  58 

have  also  been  organized,  and  day  and  night 
schools  conducted.  The  work  has  extended  to  the 
thickly  populated  districts  to  the  south  and  south- 
west, where  several  splendid  beginnings  have  been 
made. 

This  work  has  been  under  the  direction  of  the 
Rev.  R.  Wodehouse  as  Presiding  Elder,  who  with 
his  wife  reached  the  field  in  April,  1901. 

Associated  with  him  are  Mr.  E.  H.  Greeley, 
the  Rev.  and  Mrs.  J.  L.  Gates,  Rev.  and  Mrs.  A. 
L.  Buckwalter,  Rev.  and  Mrs.  J.  E.  Ferris,  Rev. 
G.  A.  Stockdale,  Mr.  Garner  and  wife.  Miss  Mae 
Bell,  and  other  European  helpers,  besides  a  number 
of  native  workers. 

At  the  Conference  held  in  November,  1907, 
there  was  reported  for  the  entire  Rhodesia  work, 
a  native  constituency  of  201  members,  1,038  pro- 
bationers, and  1,922  Sunday-school  pupils.  These 
numbers  are  being  added  to  at  a  rapid  rate  with 
each  succeeding  Sabbath. 

With  an  increasing  number  of  trained  native 
helpers  at  hand,  and  with  the  tribes  awakened,  the 
situation  is  ripe  for  a  large  extension  and  de- 
velopment of  the  work,  which  is  proceeding  as 
rapidly  as  funds  will  allow. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  CALL  OF  THE  INTERIOR. 

In  November,  1906,  we  left  Old  Umtali  to 
proceed  home  on  furlough.  Although  in  point  of 
distance  our  route  was  the  most  direct  one,  In 
point  of  time  it  was  the  longest.  We  took  the 
one  straight  across  the  continent. 

The  origin  and  growth  of  this  idea  and  the 
jjreparation  for  the  undertaking  had  proceeded 
through  several  years. 

Soon  after  my  appointment  lo  Africa,  in  1901, 
one  of  m}'^  esteemed  theological  instructors  said  to 
me,  "You  will  want  to  make  your  travels  about 
Africa,  and  particularly  your  trips  home  on  fur- 
lougli,  to  contribute  to  the  enlargement  of  your 
knowledge  of  the  continent  and  of  the  conditions 
in  that  field." 

The  remark  fastened  itself  in  my  memory  and 
has  had  not  a  little  to  do  in  controlling  my  plans 
and  actions  at  various  times  since. 

Roughly  speaking,  the  coast  of  Africa  is  cir- 
cled   with    missions,    and,    tliough    much    territory 

54 


The  Call  of  the  Interior.  55 

remains  to  be  occupied  near  the  coast,  yet  most 
of  it  is  already  marked  out  for  occupation  by 
various  societies. 

In  the  interior  there  still  remains  vast  sections 
unentered,  untouched,  and  unassigned.  The  very 
appeal  which,  in  the  first  place,  leads  the  mission- 
ary to  leave  his  own  land  for  foreign  fields,  be- 
comes more  articulate  and  commanding  when  he 
settles  on  the  edge  of  a  vast  area  of  unrelieved 
heathenism. 

So  in  district  meetings,  finance  committee 
meetings,  and  Conference  sessions,  the  "Regions 
Beyond"  were  a  constantly  recurring  topic  of  con- 
versation and  prayer,  and  appeals  from  one  and 
another  of  the  missionaries  constantly  found  their 
way  to  the  homeland — the  majority  of  them,  so 
it  seemed,  alas!  to  pass  unheeded  and  the  needed 
advance  appeared  to  us  on  the  field  so  long 
delayed. 

Bishop  Taylor,  on  landing  in  Africa,  had 
purposed  occupjdng  territory  in  the  heart  of  the 
continent  and  had  thrown  out  that  magnificent 
challenge,  "A  chain  of  missions  across  Africa,"  a 
challenge  based  not  so  much  on  sentiment  as  on 
the  acknowledged  needs  through  all  that  interior 
region. 

In   such   a   chain   the   missions   established   by 


56      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

him  in  Angola  formed  the  western  links,  and 
those  in  East  Africa  the  eastern  links. 

The  Old  Umtali  district,  of  which  I  was  super- 
intendent, bordered  on  the  intervening  territory. 
With  these  facts  and  conditions  constant!}-  forcing 
themselves  upon  me,  it  was  but  natural  that  there 
gradually  settled  on  my  heart  an  overwhelming 
burden  of  prayer  and  desire  for  the  extension  of 
the  work  to  these  regions. 

And  it  was,  perhaps,  the  fi-uit  of  the  seed 
dropped  into  my  life  by  my  beloved  teacher  that 
appeared  in  the  course  of  these  years  in  the  form 
of  a  conviction  that,  on  my  way  home,  I  should 
traverse  the  territory  between  our  missions  in 
Rhodesia  and  those  of  Angola,  learn  the  condi- 
tions, and  report. 

A  number  of  circumstances  pointed  to  this 
as  the  opportune  time  to  make  this  journey. 

In  the  first  place,  the  country  to  the  north  was 
being  rapidly  opened  up.  Between  the  years 
1899  and  1905  vast  deposits  of  various  minerals 
had  been  discovered  in  Northwestern  Rhodesia  and 
the  Congo  State.  And  two  lines  of  railroad,  one 
from  the  south  and  one  from  the  west — the  two 
to  be  connected  ultimately — were  being  con- 
structed as  rapidly  as  capital  could  be  secured  and 
the  work  pushed. 


The  Call  of  the  Interior,  57 

This  meant  the  total  abandonment  of  the  "Let- 
the-natives-alone"  policy,  so  frequently  advanced 
both  at  home  and  abroad.  New  and  powerful  in- 
fluences were  beginning  to  be  exercised  on  the 
natives  of  all  that  section  north  of  the  Zambesi, 
and  the  question  was,  What  part  the  Church  was 
taking,  or  was  going  to  take,  in  the  new  age. 

Moreover,  so  far  as  the  conditions  in  the 
Church  at  home  were  concerned,  while  the  rate 
of  advance  had  been  slow,  though  steady,  from 
the  reports  of  increasing  interest  and  information 
among  the  young  people,  and  among  the  laymen, 
and  the  Church  as  a  whole,  there  was  reason  to 
believe  that  the  day  was  at  hand  when  the  ad- 
vance would  be  large,  and  signal,  and  when  the 
desideratum  from  the  field  would  be  that  of  in- 
formation concerning  the  needs  and  opportunities. 

Accordingly,  when  the  time  came  to  arrange 
for  our  furlough,  I  submitted  the  situation  and 
stated  my  conviction  to  Bishop  Hartzell,  with  the 
request  that  the  matter  be  taken  up  with  the 
proper  authorities  at  home  and  that  a  grant  be 
made  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  amount  for  home- 
coming expenses. 

Neither  the  official  to  whom  the  matter  was 
referred   nor  the   Bishop    felt   competent  to    de- 


58      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

cide  on  the  advisability  of  our  undertaking  such 
an  extended  trip  through  these  remote  regions; 
and  as  to  financial  aid,  there  was  no  money  avail- 
able that  could  be  so  applied. 

And  since  we  had  had  considerable  fever  during 
the  months  past  from  a  trip  we  had  taken  in  the 
Zambesi  Valley,  it  was  thought  too  hazardous  a 
venture  for  us  at  that  time. 

But  as  the  conviction  only  deepened  in  the  face 
of  the  many  seemingly  insurmountable  obstruc- 
tions, there  was  a  continual  bombardment  of  com- 
nmnications,  with  the  ultimate  result  that  we  were 
informed  that,  taking  all  risks  as  to  health  and 
assuming  all  financial  responsibility,  we  were  at 
liberty  to  come  home  that  way  if  we  chose. 

It  was  a  test  of  faith  to  learn  that  we  could 
get  only  the  usual  allowance  of  money,  which 
would  not  be  more  than  half  enough.  But  as  we 
packed  up  our  possessions,  we  sold  everything  we 
possibly  could,  and  were  surprised  at  the  sum 
realized.  This  took  us  by  rail  to  Broken  Hill  and 
kept  us — with  the  strictest  economy — some  time 
after  we  got  there. 

We  left  Umtali,  November  26,  1906,  by  train, 
for  Broken  Hill — Mrs.  Springer,  myself,  and  one 
of  the  mission  boys,  Benjamin  Mndzilo.  In  view 
of    the    uncertainties    of    the    country    and    tribes 


S^rMVoHMttf 


fe- 


I 


Rev.  and  ^Iks.  John  jNI.  Spiungeu. 


The  Call  of  the  Interior.  59 

ahead  of  us,  we  felt  that  we  should  have  at  least 
one  Christian  native  with  us  on  whom  we  could  rely. 

We  had  made  this  a  matter  of  prayer;  as,  in 
fact,  we  had  every  other  detail  of  the  enterprise. 
Benjamin  had  worked  for  Mrs.  Springer  for  a 
year  and  a  half  previously.  He  was  a  man  of 
about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  an  earnest  Chris- 
tian, and  best  fitted  of  all  the  boys  to  fill  the  role 
of  helper,  interpreter,  and  general  man  on  whom 
we  could  rely.  He  was  also  a  splendid  cook  and 
had  the  art  of  a  superior  chef — the  ability  to  make 
tasty  dishes  out  of  almost  nothing,  a  very  im- 
portant feature  on  the  trail. 

We  had  not  thought  of  Benjamin  to  go  with 
us,  as  he  was  living  at  the  kraal  of  his  father, 
who  was  not  well,  and  who  would  not  let  Benjamin 
leave  him  for  ever  so  short  a  time.  But  shortly 
before  we  left  his  father  died,  and  almost  simul- 
taneously we  received  money  from  The  Christian 
Herald  which  would  just  about  cover  Benjamin's 
expenses  across  the  Continent.  And  this  money 
came  to  us  as  our  Father's  assurance  that  He  would 
provide  for  all  our  needs,  and  we  thanked  God 
and  took  courage. 

In  order  to  reach  Broken  Hill  we  had  to  take 
a  rather  round-about  route  through  Salisbury, 
Bulawayo,   and   the   Victoria   Falls.      These    falls 


60      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

are  nearly  three  times  the  size  of  the  Niagara 
Falls.  "The  most  beautiful  gem  of  the  world's 
scenery,"  they  have  been  called.  "The  Victoria 
Falls  are  twice  as  broad  and  two  and  a  half  times 
as  high  as  the  far-famed  Niagara.  Their  width 
is  over  a  mile  and  the  water  drops  over  390  feet — 
a  greater  height  than  that  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 
The  grandeur  and  solemnity  of  this  magnificent 
spectacle  can  not  be  adequately  described,  and 
pictures  can  only  convey  an  idea  of  the  scene. 
Half  a  mile  above  the  falls  the  Zambesi  is  a  mile 
and  a  half  wide.  Then  the  channel  contracts  till, 
at  the  falls  themselves,  its  breadth  is  only  1,936 
yards.  At  this  point  the  river  suddenly  ends — 
at  least  so  it  seems.  It  disappears  into  space. 
What  has  happened  is  this :  The  entire  river  falls 
sheer  into  a  great  fissure  or  canon.  It  is  as  though 
some  giants  of  earlier  days  had  dug  a  trench  four 
hundred  feet  deep  right  across  the  path  of  the 
river.  Into  this  trench  dashes  the  mighty  volume 
of  water,  only  to  be  met  by  a  vast  wall  of  basaltic 
rock.  But  in  this  wall  there  is  an  opening.  It 
is  only  one  hundred  j^ards  wide,  but  tlirough  it 
the  Zambesi  must  force  its  way.  This  is  the  awful 
boiling  pot,  a  nightmare  of  furious  water,  of 
sheets  of  spray,  of  strange  and  inspiring  blasts  of 
wind — more     than     half     water — of     thunderous 


The  Call  of  the  Interior.  61 

sounds.  Out  of  this  boiling  pot  the  Zambesi 
rushes  along  a  deep,  winding  gorge,  which  zig- 
zags through  the  plain,  sometimes  going  back  on 
itself,  for  five  and  fort}^  miles." 

The  message  of  the  falls  to  me  was  a  vivid 
realization  of  the  analogy  between  the  human 
race  and  this  river  with  its  never-ceasing  onward 
flow. 

I  realized  that  heretofore  many  of  my  ideas 
about  the  heathen  world  had  unconsciously  pic- 
tured it  as  a  standing  forest,  a  solid,  mighty 
phalanx,  with  its  millions  of  arms  always  stretch- 
ing toward  the  Light,  waiting,  waiting  down 
through  the  centuries — still  waiting. 

Now  the  passing  generations  became  visualized 
into  the  likeness  of  this  mighty  river  with  its  mag- 
nificent, thundering,  awesome  falls  and  its  awful 
abyss.  I  had  a  new  vision  of  the  heathen  mil- 
lions that  have  gone  over  and  are  constantly  being 
swept  over,  down,  down  into  the  depths  of  eter- 
nity, down  into  the  depths  of  gloom  and  despair. 

As  I  sat  there  with  fascinated  eyes,  watching 
those  never-staying  waters  make  that  final  plunge, 
going  over,  going  over,  passing  on,  and  on,  and 
on,  I  felt  like  crying  out  to  them  to  stay,  if  but 
for  one  second.  But  there  was  no  staying  that 
mighty  flood. 


62      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Having  waited  over  one  train  at  the  falls — 
a  three  days'  wait,  by-the-by — we  got  into  a  train 
made  up  of  freight  cars  and  a  ramshackle  old 
coach,  tliat  might  have  come  down  from  prehis- 
toric times,  and  were  bumped,  and  shaken,  and 
jolted  another  375  miles  and  then  dropped  off  on 
what,  in  the  darkness,  seemed  to  be  the  open  veld. 
A  few  lanterns  swinging  here  and  there  showed 
quite  a  gathering  to  meet  the  train,  most  of  whom 
were  natives  who  were  swarming  about  the  car  and 
on  seeing  us  alight  shouted,  "A  Missis !  A  Missis !" 
for  though  there  were  five  white  women  in  the 
camp,  the  novelt}'  to  the  natives  had  not  worn  off. 
And  this  was  Broken  Hill.  At  least,  it  was  the 
station  from  which  we  had  to  walk  a  mile  up  the 
railroad  track  to  get  to  the  camp  itself. 

It  was  a  typical  mining  camp  in  many  re- 
spects, most  of  its  houses  being  made  of  poles  and 
mud.  The  Cape-to-Cairo  Railway  was  finished 
to  the  northern  edge  of  the  camp  and  formed 
the  sharp  dividing  line  between  the  "Mine"  and 
the  "Town."  There  were  about  one  hundred 
whites  here  at  the  time.  Some  forty  of  these  were 
working  on  the  mine,  part  of  the  others  were 
variously  employed  about  the  "town,"  and  the 
rest  were  waiting  for  a  job  when  the  railway  con- 
struction  should   ffo   forward.      The   railroad  had 


The  Call  of  the  Interior.  63 

been  completed  to  Broken  Hill  only  two  months 
previously  and  many  of  the  men  expected  the  work 
to  go  on  at  once. 

With  the  coming  of  the  railway  the  place  had 
developed  rapidly.  When  we  arrived  there  were  one 
thousand  natives  working  on  the  mine  and  several 
hundred  others  working  as  servants,  carriers,  etc. 
These  numbers  continued  for  two  or  three  months, 
but  the  personnel  of  both  the  blacks  and  whites 
was  constantly  changing.  The  air  was  full  of 
optimism  and  pioneer  enthusiasm.  Prospectors, 
scientists,  savants,  mining  engineers,  tourists,  and 
speculators  were  coming  and  going  with  each  train. 

Religiously^,  there  was  nothing  being  done. 
Three  services  had  at  long  intervals  been  held  by 
visiting  clergymen  and  missionaries.  But  there 
was  no  local  Church  organization,  no  resident 
preacher,    nor    regular    preaching    services. 

Among  the  natives  were  about  sixty  young  men 
who  had,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  attended 
some  of  the  Scotch  missions  in  Nyasaland.  Many 
of  them  were  in  the  employ  of  the  African  Lakes 
(Trading)  Corporation.  Some  of  these  fre- 
quently held  prayer  meetings  among  themselves. 
Others  of  them  were  drifting. 

As  the  rainy  season  had  just  begun,  we  could 
not   proceed    on   our   long   trek    for    four   or   five 


64      The  Heart  op  Central  Ap^rica. 

months,  so  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  do  whatever  was 
in  my  power  for  both  blacks  and  whites  during 
our  stay.  Finding  that  no  Christian  work  had 
been  inaugurated  among  the  natives  in  the  mine 
compound,  I  went  at  once  to  the  manager  of  all 
this  group  of  mines,  Mr.  Howard  Moffat,  who  is 
a  grandson  of  Robert  Moffat  and  a  nephew  of 
David  Livingstone,  and  asked  his  permission  to 
hold  services  there.  jNIr.  Moffat  was  very  willing, 
and  all  through  those  five  months'  stay  gave  all 
possible  assistance. 

He  gave  me  the  use  of  the  mine  interpreters, 
and,  from  that  first  Sunday  until  we  left,  I  con- 
tinued to  hold  regular  meetings  on  the  compound. 

There  was  also  a  group  of  thirty-two  Zulu- 
speaking  natives.  They  had  worked  on  the  rail- 
way as  linkers-in  and  were  now  waiting  here  idle 
for  the  road  to  proceed,  being  rationed  by  the 
contractors.  They  were  recommended  to  me  as 
being  the  worst  crowd  about  the  camp.  That 
was  saying  a  good  deal,  but  the  reputation  was 
verified.  Having  nothing  to  do,  and  being  at 
liberty  to  earn  all  the  spending  money  they 
wanted,  they  gave  themselves  up  to  hard  drink- 
ing and  native  women. 

As  they  were  called  ":Mission  Boys,"  I  began 
an   investigation.      I    found   one   of   their   number 


H 


w 
^ 
y; 

K 


The  Call  of  the  Interior.  65 

was  a  man,  perhaps  thirty  years  old,  by  the  name 
of  Jacob.  He  was  a  tall,  raw-boned  Matebele  who 
had  once  attended  a  mission  school  for  six  months. 
Every  one  of  his  companions  testified  that  they 
had  never  known  Jacob  to  drink  or  join  any  of 
their  carousals.  He  was  fond  of  singing  hymns 
and  had  taught  them  to  the  others,  and  it  was 
their  nightly  and  prolonged  hymn-singing  that 
had  given  them  the  title  of  "Mission  Boys." 
None  of  the  others  had  ever  attended  a  mission. 

But  several  said  they  would  like  to  learn  and 
were  willing  to  build  a  little  mud  hut  for  a  school- 
house  and  chapel.  Jacob,  who  could  just  manage 
a  primer  and  hymn  book,  offered  his  services  as 
a  teacher,  free  of  charge,  and  so  there  was  soon 
quite  a  little  night  school. 

As  has  already  been  related,  Jacob  joined  us 
when  we  proceeded  from  Broken  Hill  and  went  the 
whole  1,500  miles  to  Angola  to  school.  , 

I  also  began  holding  services  for  Europeans  | 
every  Sunday  night.  As  there  was  no  room  or 
building  of  any  description  suitable  for  religious 
meetings,  I  called  a  mass  meeting  and  put  the 
proposition  before  them  that  they  build  a  tem- 
porary mud  and  pole  chapel,  and  that  I  would  hold 
regular  services  there  gratis  during  my  few 
months'  stay. 
5 


66      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

This  was  carried  through  and  soon  the  funds 
were  subscribed  and  put  in  the  hands  of  a  repre- 
sentative committee,  who  would  have  charge  over 
the  chapel  after  I  had  gone,  securing  any  visiting 
clergyman  to  hold  service.  This  was  the  first 
church  for  whites  to  be  erected  along  this  rail- 
road north  of  Bulawayo,  a  distance  of  nearly 
seven  hundred  miles. 

Those  were  the  days  of  first  things  in  all  that 
new  country.  Inside  of  a  week  I  was  asked  to 
perform  the  first  christening.  A  few  days  later  I 
was  asked  to  officiate  at  the  first  wedding.  It 
was  held  in  the  hotel  dining-room.  Now  the 
"hotel"  was  a  collection  of  grass-thatched,  cir- 
cular mud  huts,  and  the  dining-room  boasted  itself 
of  being  square  and  having  a  brick  floor  instead 
of  mud.  It  was  fourteen  by  twenty  feet  and  was 
well  filled  at  the  time  of  the  wedding.  Word  had 
gone  out  that  there  would  be  plenty  of  whisky  for 
all  who  came. 

The  bride  was  a  pretty  Scotch  girl,  who  looked 
charming  in  her  white  veil  and  gown.  The  groom 
was  an  Australian  who  was  working  on  the 
mine. 

No  sooner  was  the  ceremony  ended  than  the 
refreshments  began,  and  in  an  hour's  time  a  row 


The  Call  of  the  Interior.  67 

seemed  inevitable.  But  the  offenders  were  lured 
outside  and  engaged  in  games,  and  so  the  day  and 
evening  ended  in  good  humor,  though  considerable 
of  it  was  maudlin  humor. 

When  we  got  the  church  funds  in  hand  there 
was  enough  to  put  up  the  chapel  and  a  two- 
roomed  hut  beside  it.  Here  we  took  up  our  abode, 
welcoming  all  of  the  white  men  who  frequently 
called  and  for  whom  there  was  ever  the  cup  of 
tea,  or  a  share  of  our  own  simple  fare  for  the 
hungry,  of  whom  there  were  many.  Many  of  these 
men  keenly  enjoyed  getting  into  a  homelike  at- 
mosphere again. 

Of  the  various  parties  coming  and  going,  no 
other  interested  us  so  much  as  that  of  Mr.  Malcolm 
M.  Moffat,  his  wife,  and  two  children,  who  ar- 
rived the  last  week  in  April.  He  and  his  wife  had 
already  spent  five  years  in  the  Livingstonia  Mis- 
sion in  Northeastern  Rhodesia  under  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  He  was  now  under  appoint- 
ment to  open  up  the  work  of  a  Livingstone  Me- 
morial Mission  near  Chitambo's  kraal,  where  Liv- 
ingstone died  and  where  his  heart  is  buried,  about 
two  hundred  miles  east  of  Broken  Hill. 

Mr.  Moffat  left  Broken  Hill  for  Chitambo's  on 
May  2d,  just  thirty-four  years  and  one  day  after 


68      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Livingstone  had  breathed  out  his  final  prayer  alone 
on  his  knees,  so  remote  from  civilization.  But 
during  those  tliirty-four  years  the  spirit  of  David 
Livingstone  has  still  worked  in  the  world,  and 
slowly  but  surely  has  been  stirring  the  Christian 
world  to  the  great  task  of  finally  "healing  the  open 
sore  of  the  world." 


CHAPTER  IV. 
LEAVING  BROKEN  HILL. 

During  the  rainy  season,  which  continues 
from  October  to  March,  the  country  to  the  north 
of  Broken  Hill  was  largely  under  water,  and  to 
travel  at  that  time  would  mean  wading  in  water 
from  one  to  four  feet  deep  for  long  distances,  not 
to  mention  the  big  swamps  and  flooded  rivers  to 
cross. 

By  April  the  rains  were  well  over  and  another 
month  would  dry  up  the  trail  sufficiently  for  us 
to  travel.  So  we  set  Monday,  the  13th  of  May,  for 
our  departure. 

But  at  the  same  time  that  we  set  this  date,  we 
had  none  of  our  supplies  in  hand  and  no  way  of 
knowing  when  they  would  arrive.  The  tent  and 
camp  outfit,  with  some  clothing  and  provisions, 
had  been  ordered  from  the  United  States  eight 
months  previously.  The  rest  of  our  food  sup- 
plies, photographic  materials,  etc.,  we  could  get 
in  Cape  Town,  Bulawayo,  or  locally.  The  money, 
we  learned,  had  not  left  New  York. 

69 


70      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Not  the  least  important  of  our  needs  was  that 
of  carriers.  It  was  important,  if  possible,  to  get 
men  who  would  go  the  whole  distance  with  us. 
Otherwise,  we  might  be  left  stranded  and  helpless 
in  the  midst  of  some  hostile  tribe. 

As  Ave  were  leaving  a  base  of  supplies,  with 
no  chance  of  replenishing,  we  needed  to  take  all 
the  European  food  we  should  require  for  our  own 
use  and  all  the  trading  goods  necessary  to  pro- 
vide food  for  our  caravan  for  the  entire  period. 
In  short,  we  must  take  of  food,  cloth,  salt,  beads, 
medicines,  and  photographic  supplies  enough  to 
last  four  months. 

We  expected  to  use  as  much  native  food  as 
possible  for  our  own  diet.  But  previous  personal 
experience  and  the  experience  of  hundreds  of  other 
whites  had  proved  that  the  white  man  can  not 
keep  up  his  strength  and  health  on  the  trail  by 
depending  on  native  foods  alone.  It  is  not  so  bad 
as  long  as  one  can  buy  plenty  of  sweet  potatoes, 
which  make  a  good  meal  either  raw  or  cooked. 
P"  But  when  it  comes  to  the  varieties  of  mush — millet 
nmsh,  Kaffir  corn  mush,  sour  cassava  mush,  and  a 
three-times-a-day  diet  of  nothing  else  but  sticky, 
gritty,  unappetizing  mush — it  won't  keep  a  white 
man  in  good  condition.  He  is  almost  sure  to  get 
down  sick  on  it. 


V 


Leaving  Broken  Hill.  71 

So  we  took  along  two  fifty-pound  loads  of 
whole  wheat  flour,  or  Boer  meal.  We  also  took  a 
case  and  a  half  of  milk,  tea,  coffee,  canned  fish, 
cheese,  and  jam,  a  case  of  Welch's  grape  juice 
for  use  in  fever,  arrowroot  to  be  used  if  we  got 
that  most  dreaded  foe  of  the  trail,  dysentery.  We 
also  had  to  have  candles,  matches,  a  small  amount 
of  soap,  and  numerous  odds  and  ends  of  little 
things  which  contribute  to  health  and  efficiency ; 
for  we  neither  wished  to  die  on  the  way,  to  reach 
Angola  in  a  dying  state,  or  to  be  unfitted  for  work 
for  long  months  when  the  journey  should  be  over. 

In  order  to  take  the  things  absolutely  needed 
(and  we  went  over  our  list  time  and  time  again, 
cutting  out  everything  we  felt  we  could  possibly 
do  without)  we  required  forty  carriers. 

Now,  certain  white  men  at  Broken  Hill  had 
been  waiting  for  weeks  to  get  carriers,  so  when 
we  told  them  that  we  expected  to  leave  May  13th, 
they  laughed  and  said,  "No,  you  won't." 

As  previously  stated,  for  more  than  a  year  we 
had  been  making  every  detail  of  this  trip — the  car- 
riers, route,  funds,  dates,  and  the  securing  of  infor- 
mation about  it — a  subject  of  constant  prayer. 
Now  an  earnest  of  the  answer  for  carriers  was 
granted  the  first  week  in  April,  when  eight  Angoni 
men,  who  had  just  arrived  there  from  their  own 


72      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

country,  six  hundred  miles  cast,  came  to  me.  They 
said  that  they  had  heard  that  I  was  about  to  make 
a  long  journey  and  they  wished  to  go  with  me.  I 
engaged  them  and  they  went  with  me  straight 
through  to  Angola,  the  most  faithful  and  efficient 
men  I  had.  I  consider  it  as  one  of  the  most  signal 
of  the  many  answers  to  our  prayers. 

But  no  more  carriers,  and  none  of  our  goods 
came  during  that  month.  It  was  a  month  of  walk- 
ing solely  by  faith. 

Monday,  May  6th,  came  around  without  any- 
thing further  in  sight;  still,  we  believed  that  we 
should  leave  the  next  week,  and  made  all  plans 
for  that.  And,  sure  enough,  just  when  they  were 
needed,  and  not  before,  everything  came  to  hand. 

On  Tuesday  additional  carriers  began  coming 
to  me,  until  I  had  thirty.  On  Thursday  the  money 
came  by  cable,  the  tent  and  other  necessaries  also 
arrived,  so  that  we  were  awed  as  we  saw  God's 
wonderful  providence  manifested.  From  that 
time  on  there  could  not  be  the  shadow  of  a  doubt 
as  to  His  purposes  regarding  the  expedition,  nor 
of  His  especial  care  and  guidance. 

Friday  and  Saturday  found  us  unpacking 
goods  received  and  repacking  them  into  sixty- 
pound  loads. 

Sunday  was  devoted  to  farewell  services  with 


Leaving  Broken  Hill.  73 

the  several  groups  to  whom  I  had  been  ministering 
during  these  months. 

Monday  Mr.  MofFat  let  me  have  eleven  men 
from  the  mine  to  go  with  us  a  week  at  least.  The 
delays  incident  to  starting  out  on  such  a  long  trip 
seemed  numberless,  and  so  it  was  near  the  noon 
hour  when  our  carriers  at  last  lifted  their  loads 
onto  their  heads  and  our  caravan  wound  out  of 
Broken  Hill, 

We  were  accompanied  by  Mr.  Frank  E.  Gif- 
ford,  a  young  English  Wesleyan,  whom  we  found 
employed  on  the  mine  at  Broken  Hill,  and  be- 
tween whom  and  ourselves  there  had  sprung  up 
a  mutual  attachment.  Three  weeks  before  we  left 
he  received  notice  that  the  mine  was  closing  down 
indefinitely,  pending  experiments  as  to  the  best 
methods  of  treating  the  ore  and  the  subsequent 
installation  of  smelters,  and  he,  with  most  of  the 
other  employes,  was  being  laid  off.  He,  therefore, 
proposed  accompanying  us  to  the  copper  mines 
further  north  to  seek  employment.  Failing  to 
get  work,  he  continued  all  the  way  to  England 
with  us. 

Our  late  start  brought  us  to  the  first  water, 
twelve  miles  out,  about  sundown,  all  three  of  us  with 
badly  blistered  feet  and  the  carriers  in  bad  humor. 
The  native  wants  to  be  in  camp  by  four  o'clock 


74      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

at  the  latest,  so  that  he  can  get  wood,  and  water, 
and  fix  up  his  bed  of  grass  before  dark.  Then 
the  next  day  we  did  not  get  started  as  early  as 
we  wished,  the  kraals  and  water  were  few  and  far 
between,  and  we  were  late  again.  They  now 
grumbled  openly :  they  could  not  travel  all  day  and 
all  night,  too.  Several  were  determined  not  to  go 
on  and  I  had  considerable  difficulty  in  quelling 
the  mutiny. 

During  the  rest  of  the  week  I  had  the  task 
of  organizing  the  caravan  and  of  assigning  each 
man  his  regular  load  and  his  duties  when  in  camp. 
Five  of  the  machilla  men  were  to  pitch  our  tent, 
two  of  them  to  bring  grass  for  our  bed,  and  a 
third  gather  wood  for  the  evening  fire,  for  the 
nights  were  cold,  the  thermometer  registering 
from  48  degrees  down  to  28  degrees. 

By  the  time  these  things  were  done  Jacob 
usually  arrived,  and  his  task  was  to  make  the  bed 
and  place  all  our  personal  effects  inside  the  tent. 

Benjamin  carried  no  load  except  his  own 
blanket  and  clothes.  He  had  to  work  early  in 
the  morning  and  often  until  late  at  night  baking 
our  bread,  and  that  was  enough  for  him. 

Neither  did  the  Capitao  carry  a  load.  His 
duty  it  was  to  walk  at  the  rear  end  of  the  caravan 
and  be  the  last  man  to  reach  camp.     If  any  fell 


^0^=^EF^^ 


o 


o 

H 


Leaving  Broken  Hill.  75 

sick  on  the  trail,  he  had  to  carry  the  load  and 
see  that  the  man  reached  the  camp  in  safety.  The 
office  of  capitao  is  important  and  trying.  But  we 
had  a  splendid  one  from  among  the  eight  Angoni. 

Every  man  in  the  caravan  thus  had  his  evening 
and  morning  duties.  The  last  thing  at  night, 
after  the  evening  meal  had  been  eaten,  one  of  the 
Angoni  saw  that  all  the  loads  were  safe  from  the 
ravages  of  the  white  ants  or  termites. 

In  the  morning  the  same  -boys  who  put  up 
the  tent  took  it  down  and  gave  the  tent,  blankets, 
etc.,  to  their  respective  carriers.  We  then  ate 
a  hurried  and  very  simple  breakfast,  and  a  call 
was  made  for  prayers.  The  whole  caravan  gath- 
ered around  and  stood  with  bowed  heads  while 
we  committed  ourselves  to  God  for  the  day,  asking 
His  guidance  and  protection,  the  supplying  of  all 
our  needs,  and  praying  that  the  Light  might 
soon  shine  in  all  that  dark  land. 

Two  articles  we  took  on  that  trip  gave  us  such 
satisfaction  that  they  deserve  special  mention;  the 
one  was  a  balloon  silk  tent,  and  the  other  a  tin  bake 
oven.  The  tent  was  very  light  in  weight,  and,  with 
its  floor  sewed  on,  was  very  compact  and  comfort- 
able. The  floor  was  rot-proof,  ant-proof,  brown 
canvas,  so  we  could  put  our  things  down  at  night 
without  the  danger  of  having  them  devoured  before 


76      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

morning.  The  tent  was  too  hot  and  light  to  give  the 
best  comfort  bj  day,  but  for  those  making  rapid 
marches  it  is  excellent. 

The  bake  oven  consisted  of  fiA^e  pieces  of  tin, 
which  folded  flat.  They  opened  like  an  alligator's 
jaws,  with  a  shelf  in  the  center.  On  this  shelf  we 
could  bake  anything  to  perfection — meat,  bread, 
potatoes — as  well  as  in  the  finest  stove  oven.  It 
was  one  of  our  pleasures  during  the  evening  to 
sit  by  the  big  log  fire  and  watch  our  bread  baking 
over  on  the  other  side.  The  oven  only  weighed 
three  pounds  and  took  little  space  in  the  kitchen 
box. 

During  the  first  month  we  were  able  to  buy 
quantities  of  sweet  potatoes,  which  furnished  us 
and  our  carriers  with  the  bulk  of  our  eating.  We 
ate  them  raw,  and  baked,  and  boiled.  As  the  most 
of  the  carriers  had  been  on  a  steady  diet  of  musty, 
wormy  Kaffir  corn  for  weeks  before  starting,  they 
fell  upon  the  tubers  like  famine  subjects.  They 
could  hardly  get  enough  of  sweet  potatoes  and 
new  beans. 

In  Northwestern  Rhodesia  there  obtains  a  good 
custom  for  rationing  a  caravan.  Each  man  is 
given  one  yard  of  blue  or  white  calico,  and  he 
buys  his  food  for  a  week  with  it.  This  is  called 
"posa."  In  addition  to  that,  we  gave  our  men  two 
ounces  of  salt  each  per  week. 


Leaving  Broken  Hill.  77 

On  the  third  day  from  Broken  Hill  we  en- 
countered the  tsetse  fly,  the  glossina  morsitans — a 
small  insect  a  trifle  larger  than  the  common  house 
fly.  It  is  barred  a  brownish  gray  and  a  dingy 
white  over  the  body  and  down  the  legs.  It  has  a 
three-tined  probosis  which,  like  the  old-fashioned 
forks,  have  superior  power  of  penetration — as  we 
soon  learned. 

This  species  is  sure  death  to  domestic  animals 
of  all  kinds:  cattle,  horses,  mules,  donkeys,  sheep, 
goats,  dogs,  and  cats.  From  this  time  until 
after  we  had  crossed  the  Lualaba  River,  beyond 
Kambove,  we  did  not  see  a  living  animal  about  the 
native  kraals,  not  even  a  fowl.  As  the  country 
abounds  in  wild  game,  there  is  plenty  of  meat  for 
those  who  can  take  the  time  to  hunt  for  it.  And 
it  is  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  in  time,  with  the 
settling  of  the  country,  when  the  wild  game  dis- 
appears, the  fly  goes  with  it. 

The  glossina  morsitans  is  not  fatal  to  human 
beings,  and  beyond  a  stinging  bite,  like  the  thrust 
of  a  red-hot  needle  into  the  skin,  and  a  big  welt 
which  smarts  and  itches  as  if  done  by  a  score  of 
mosquitoes,  its  bite  is  harmless.  Not  so  the  glos- 
sina palpalis,  or  black-legged  tsetse.  It  is  now 
believed  that  this  species  is  responsible  for  the 
sleeping  sickness.     Scientists  are  still  in  the  dark 


78      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

as   to  how   this   fly   transmits   the   disease   and   in 
what  respect  it  differs  from  its  striped  brother. 

A  number  of  scientists  are  devoting  themselves 
to  the  investigation  of  this  dreaded  sleeping  sick- 
ness to  see  if  they  can  discover  the  preventative, 
and  also  a  cure.  So  far  they  have  not  found  either, 
while  one  or  two  of  them  have  died  from  the  sleep- 
ing sickness.  For  years  it  was  thought  that  white 
people  were  immune  from  it,  but  now  that  this 
has  been  proved  untrue,  it  is  all  the  more  needful 
to  learn  some  way  to  cope  with  it. 

Starting  on  the  lower  Congo,  about  twenty 
years  ago,  the  disease  spread  rapidly  up  the  river 
and  has  now  got  as  far  south  as  Northwestern 
Rhodesia,  though  the  government  is  doing  all  it 
can  to  restrict  it. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  bite  of  the  fly  does  not 
necessarily  show  any  immediate  effects  and  death 
may  not  take  place  for  ten  ^^ears  later,  but,  sooner 
or  later,  it  is  inevitable.  The  first  symptoms  which 
enable  one  to  be  sure  that  the  case  is  one  of  sleep- 
ing; sickness  is  a  formation  of  "beans"  down  the 
lymphatic  glands  at  the  back  of  the  neck.  Run- 
ning the  fingers  over  the  glands,  these  bean-like 
formations  can  be  readily  felt. 

When  we  were  nearly  to  Angola,  one  of  the  best 
of  the  machilla  men  came  to  me  one  day  and  asked 


Leaving  Broken  Hill.  79 

to  be  freed  from  the  machilla  and  given  a  load. 
He  said  he  had  a  lame  neck.  On  examination  it 
was  found  that  these  "beans"  were  there.  I,  of 
course,  did  not  mention  them  to  him,  but  gave  him 
the  other  load,  as  he  had  asked. 

Soon  he  came  again,  saying  that  he  felt  too 
badly  to  carry  any  load,  so  I  let  him  off  entirely. 
He  seemed  extremely  nervous  and  began  to  fail 
rapidly.  As  we  reached  Angola  soon,  I  saw  him 
no  more  and  I  do  not  know  the  result. 

But  the  disease  has  been  a  dreadful  scourge. 
One  of  the  scientists,  in  writing  from  a  sleeping- 
sickness  camp,  describes  the  situation  thus :  "From 
this  place  we  have  a  most  exquisite  view  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  see — valley,  wood,  and  hill,  and,  far 
away,  a  great  range  of  mountains.  To  the  south 
of  us,  for  many  miles,  the  country  is  deserted  on 
account  of  sleeping  sickness.  Thousands  died 
and  the  others  left.  Here  we  are  close  to  a  sleep- 
ing-sickness camp,  so  we  get  the  full  benefit  of 
the  cries  of  the  delirious  patients.  There  are  515 
people  in  this  camp.  Ten  men  are  employed  to 
remove  jiggers  from  the  feet  of  the  patients." 

Another  authority  states :  "From  the  best  sta- 
tistics available,  the  number  of  deaths  in  the 
Uganda  protectorate,  during  the  last  five  or  six 
years,  has  considerably  exceeded  200,000,  or  has 


80      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

been  equal  to  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  entire 
population  in  the  affected  districts.  The  lake 
shore  and  the  islands  have  been  almost  completely 
depopulated,  and  thousands  of  the  sick  have  been 
abandoned  by  their  terror-stricken  relatives  to 
starvation  or  to  wild  beasts." 

It  is  encouraging  to  note  that  the  heroic  men 
who  are  engaged  in  the  study  of  this  dread  malady 
believe  that  it  may  be  exterminated  in  a  similar 
way  to  malaria — the  abolishing  of  suitable  breed- 
ing places  and  the  removal  of  infected  patients 
from  the  reach  of  the  fly. 

So  far  as  we  knew,  we  did  not  come  into  any 
region  of  the  glossina  palpilis,  though  we  were  the 
tortured  victims  of  the  glossina  morsitans  for  five 
weeks. 

While  at  Broken  Hill  Mr.  Gifford  had  de- 
bated long  whether  to  take  his  bicycle  along  or 
not.  So  many  men  were  leaving  that  there  was 
no  sale  for  that  or  anything  else,  so  at  last  he  de- 
cided to  make  the  venture.  During  the  first  week 
the  country  was  fairly  level,  the  trails  of  the  usual 
crookedness,  and  only  the  orthodox  amount  of  ant 
hills,  fallen  sticks,  and  other  obstructions. 

What  with  badly  blistered  feet,  we  were  both 
glad  to  take  turns  at  riding  the  wheel  to  rest  our 
feet,  and  at  walking  again,  to  rest  our  eyes  and 


Leaving  Broken  Hill.  81 

nerves.  On  the  whole,  we  decided  that  the  wheel 
was  an  advantage.  It  became  more  doubtful  after 
we  got  into  the  fly  belt,  for,  whether  we  rode,  la- 
boriously pedalling,  with  both  hands  clenched  on 
the  handle  bars  and  both  eyes  glued  on  the  path 
ahead,  or  whether  we  walked  behind  the  machine, 
which  acted  like  a  fiend  incarnate  as  we  tried  to 
push  it  through  the  grass  from  six  to  eight  feet 
high,  it  seemed  as  if  the  flies  sensed  that  both  our 
hands  were  engaged,  and  they  settled  down  over 
our  bare  necks  and  arms  in  a  maddening  swarm. 

The  question  nearly  settled  itself  on  the  Sat- 
urday after  we  started  when  we  came  to  several 
miles  of  timber  land  where  an  abundance  of  trees 
had  been  cut  down,  leaving  their  stumps  close  to 
the  trail.  After  dismounting  a  score  of  times  or 
so,  Gifford  thought  at  last  that  he  saw  a  clear 
track,  nor  knew  the  contrary  until  he  lay  on  the 
other  side  of  a  stump,  his  bleeding  knee  thrust 
through  his  khaki  trousers  and  the  front  wheel 
of  the  bicycle  bent  into  a  bow.  He  had  then, 
fortunately,  only  a  short  distance  to  the  Baptist 
Mission,  for  which  we  were  heading. 

There  were  but  few  native  kraals  along  the 
way,  and  we  were  struck  with  the  miserable  ap- 
pearance of  the  few.  The  huts  were  merely  grass 
roofs  set  on  the  ground,  under  which  the  people 
6 


82      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

existed.  The  gardens  were  small  and  uncarcd  for. 
The  natives  impressed  one  as  being  just  the  rag- 
tags left  by  the  slave  raiders,  who  had  taken  all 
worth  while  with  them,  and  these  few  all  smoked 
the  hemp  pipe,  the  effects  of  which  are  even  worse 
than  those  of  opium.  A  more  degenerate,  hope- 
less lot  of  people  it  would  be  hard  to  find.  Every 
where  the  hemp  pipe,  with  its  long  reed  in  water, 
through  which  the  inhalation  is  drawn,  was  in  evi- 
dence, and  always  we  could  hear  the  violent  cough- 
ing of  the  victim  which  accompanies  this  dread 
habit.  So  pernicious  is  this  habit  that  the  govern- 
ment is  taking  measures  to  stamp  it  out.  The 
police  are  instructed  to  destroy  all  the  hemp  plants 
they  can  find  as  they  patrol  the  country. 

We  had  not  taken  the  direct  route  from  Broken 
Hill  to  Kanshanshi  tlu-ough  Kapopo  for  two 
reasons.  One  was  that  there  were  two  Baptist 
missionaries  on  a  lone  station,  just  one  hundred 
miles  north  of  us,  and  we  wished  to  spend  a  Sunday 
with  them. 

The  other  reason  was  that  on  the  Kapopo  route 
there  was  the  vast  Lukanga  swamp  to  cross.  One 
of  the  first  government  officials  to  cross  this  swamp 
got  a  chief  of  one  of  the  villages  to  be  his  guide. 
At  one  place  the  chief  disappeared  through  a  hole 
and,  though  his  load  (being  a  tent)  was  recovered. 


Leaving  Broken  Hill.  83 

he  was  never  seen  again.  Another  man  in  crossing 
had  a  hippopotamus  suddenly  come  up  beside  him 
and  then  disappear. 

That  there  is  a  good-sized  river  underneath 
the  swamp  is  quite  believable,  and  it  is  evident  that 
somewhere  there  is  an  obstruction  to  its  flow,  for 
the  swamp  is  steadily  extending  its  area.  But  its 
solid  mass  of  reeds  die  down  each  year  and  form 
hummocks,  which  afford  sufficiently  solid  footing 
to  enable  thousands  of  loaded  carriers  to  cross  it 
each  year. 

After  the  empty  country  and  the  few  down-at- 
the-heel  kraals  we  had  seen  for  five  days,  it  was 
a  delight  to  come  to  substantial,  well-cultivated 
fields  and  see  bright,  eager-faced  natives.  We 
were  the  first  missionaries  to  visit  this  Kafulafuta 
Mission,  and  the  natives  had  never  seen  a  white 
woman  before. 

As  soon  as  the  men  who  were  out  in  the  gardens 
working — please  note! — saw  the  machilla  and 
learned  that  there  was  a  white  woman  in  it,  they 
dropped  their  tools  and,  crowding  around,  vied 
with  each  other  as  to  who  should  help  in  carrying 
it.  By  the  time  she  reached  the  mission  there  was 
a  crowd  of  about  fifty  men  and  boys,  all  running 
and  singing  so  they  could  be  heard  a  mile  away. 
It  was  a  royal  reception  indeed. 


84      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Here  we  were  quite  as  heartily  welcomed  by 
Mr.  Phillips  and  his  associate,  Mr.  Masters.  They 
had  arrived  from  East  Africa  two  years  pre- 
viously, and  settled  at  the  junction  of  the  Kafue 
and  Kafulafuta  Rivers.  Here,  on  the  bare  veld, 
they  had  succeeded  in  establishing  a  flourishing 
mission.  There  were  three  living  houses  and  several 
good  huts  for  the  various  station  uses.  They  had 
made  quite  extensive  gardens,  had  quite  a  little 
fruit  orchard  started,  a  large  castor  bean  patch,  etc. 

There  were  several  kraals  near  them  and  the 
day  school  numbered  about  twenty-four.  Since 
our  return  home,  Mr.  Phillips  writes  me  that  just 
after  the  second  anniversary  of  their  arrival  there 
some  of  the  young  men  sought  him  out  and  ex- 
pressed their  desire  to  become  Christians.  Others 
followed,  and  soon  there  were  twenty  of  them 
formed  into  an  old-fashioned  Methodist  "class." 
For  that  which  we  seem  so  willing  to  be  rid  of, 
other  denominations  arc  beginning  to  value. 

I  mention  these  converts  particularly,  because 
in  all  the  territory  in  which  I  had  traveled  for  thou- 
sands of  miles  in  Africa  I  had  never  seen  a  people 
for  whom  I  had  so  little  enthusiasm.  To  be  sure, 
no  one  would  question  their  need  of  the  Gospel, 
but  while  we  recognized  that  the  two  brethren  had 
done  great  credit  to  themselves  in  the  start  they 


Leaving  Broken  Hill.  85 

had  made,  our  party  were  all  agreed,  as  we  dis- 
cussed the  matter  after  leaving,  that,  considering 
the  low-down  state  of  the  natives  of  that  region, 
there  would  be  reason  for  rejoicing  if  there  were 
any  converts  in  ten  years'  time. 

It  certainly  is  a  fair  proposition  that  if  a  tribe 
so  nearly  exterminated  with  the  bloody  slave  traffic 
which  has  continued  for  centuries,  and  a  tribe 
which  has  been  given  over  to  degeneracy,  is  so 
susceptible  to  the  influences  of  the  Gospel,  what 
may  we  expect  of  the  more  superior  tribes  to  be 
found  all  over  Central  Africa? 


CHAPTER  V. 
TO  THE  COPPER  COUNTRY. 

OuE  next  objective  point  was  the  Kanslianshi 
copper  mine,  two  hundred  miles  further  northwest, 
on  the  border  of  the  Congo  Free  State. 

No  one  at  Kafulafuta  knew  of  any  trail  by 
which  we  could  go  from  there  directly  to  Kan- 
slianshi, neither  the  white  men  nor  any  of  the 
natives.  One  native  said  he  knew  a  path  to  one 
village  in  that  direction,  but  others  said  that  we 
would  have  to  go  five  days  ere  we  reached  a  kraal. 
We  got  our  brethren  to  let  us  have  the  one  man 
who  claimed  to  know  ever  so  little,  and  set  forth 
only  to  discover  that  our  guide  really  did  not  know 
the  way  at  all,  and  so  by  noon  I  had  to  resort  to 
m}^  compass  and  follow  the  best-worn  trail,  which 
soon  turned  in  the  wrong  direction  and  we  had  to 
take  to  the  pathless  veld.  After  an  anxious  day  and 
twenty  miles  of  hard  travel  we  were  rejoiced  to  see 
native  gardens,  and  at  last  came  to  an  old  man. 

We  were  not  near  a  kraal,  but  the  old  man 
went  to  the  garden  people  and  told  them  we  were 


To  THE  Copper  Country.  87 

hungry,  so  that  by  dusk  we  were  doing  quite  a 
brisk  trade.  As  the  thermometer  went  down  to 
32  degrees  that  night,  we  all  suffered  from  the 
cold. 

The  next  morning,  after  an  hour's  walking,  we 
came  to  the  kraal.  The  chief  and  his  people  were 
in  their  gardens,  but  came  quickly  in  response  to 
call.  In  the  meantime  we  fought  fleas.  The  place 
was  just  alive  with  them,  and  we  were  soon  pep- 
pered with  the  tormenting,  vicious  little  pests. 

As  soon  as  the  natives  arrived  I  told  the  chief 
that  I  wanted  a  guide  to  take  me  due  northwest, 
to  Kanshanshi.  Then  one  of  the  young  men  spoke 
up  and  said  there  was  no  path  and  there  were  no 
villages  nor  water  in  that  direction,  but  we  would 
have  to  turn  back  and  go  southwest  to  Kapopo. 
The  chief  and  all  his  people  swore  that  he  was 
right.  They  vowed  we  could  go  east,  or  north,  or 
southwest,  but  not  northwest.  This  would  mean  a 
loss  of  from  two  to  four  days,  which  we  could  not 
afford,  and  I  told  them  I  knew  there  was  a  path 
in  the  right  direction  and  they  must  give  me 
guides,  whom  I  would  pay  well.  We  needed  a 
guide,  as  part  of  the  country  was  depopulated  by 
the  slave  trade,  and  we  must  pass  through  vil- 
lages in  order  to  get  food  for  the  caravan. 

And  so  I  stood  there  and  insisted  that  we  would 


88      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

go  one  way,  and  the  natives  persisted  that  we  must 
go  another,  and  this  excited  debate  continued  for 
more  than  an  hour  and  waxed  so  warm  that  I  soon 
forgot  all  about  the  fleas,  which  were  making  life 
miserable  for  my  wife  and  GifFord. 

Bub  after  about  an  hour  I  won  the  day. 
Among  the  carriers  I  had  borrowed  from'the  mine 
was  one  man  whom  I  dubbed  "Joab."  He  lived  in 
the  Congo  State  and,  when  he  came  up,  joined  in 
the  discussion.  "Why,  you  know  where  Chima- 
gata's  kraal  is?"  said  Joab.  "Yes,  we  know  where 
that  is,"  was  the  incautious  reply.  "Then  show  us 
the  path  leading  to  it,"  said  Joab.  They  saw  they 
were  caught,  and  good-humoredly  took  their  de- 
feat, and  in  a  few  minutes  I  had  engaged  two 
guides  to  go  with  us  five  da3's,  one  of  them  being 
the  young  buck  who  had  so  strongly  insisted  there 
was  no  trail  in  that  direction. 

Now,  why  these  all  united  in  lying  so  steadily 
for  the  space  of  an  hour  or  more,  is  more  than  I 
can  fully  explain.  It  probably  is  connected  with 
the  fear  of  slave  raiders,  who  may  do  damage,  for 
which  the  guides  may  have  to  answer  later ;  but,  no 
doubt,  much  of  it  is  due  to  the  native  oi)lnion  that 
a  lie  is  an  evidence  of  cleverness,  an  idea  that  has 
not  wholly  been  eradicated  from  civilization. 

Two  miles  further  on  we  came  onto  a  group  of 


To  THE  Copper  Country.  89 

beautiful  sable  antelope  grazing  by  the  Rufubu 
River,  but  they  were  gone  before  we  could  get  our 
guns,  and,  although  we  pitched  camp  and  kept 
hunting  for  them,  the  grass  was  so  long  that  we 
got  nothing. 

From  this  on,  for  several  days  we  were  in  a 
hunter's  paradise  (at  the  wrong  season,  on  account 
of  the  long  grass).  Every  day  we  saw  spoor 
(tracks)  of  elephants,  buffaloes,  rhinoceri,  ante- 
lopes, buck  of  at  least  a  dozen  varieties,  lions, 
leopards,  and  hyenas.  But  the  grass  was  against 
us  not  only  in  hiding  the  game,  but  in  harboring 
swarms  of  the  tsetse  flies.  In  the  forest  there  were 
fewer  flies,  but  swarms  of  bees. 

One  morning  Mrs.  Springer  and  I  were  walk- 
ing along  with  one  of  the  guides,  the  caravan  be- 
ing far  in  the  rear.  Suddenly  I  saw  a  large,  lone 
bull  baff^alo  down  in  the  vlej  standing  quietly  re- 
garding us.  We  needed  meat  badly  for  our  boys, 
but  a  wounded  bufl^alo  is  perhaps  the  most  danger- 
ous animal  in  all  Africa  to  meet,  and  I  hesitated 
to  shoot,  on  my  wife's  account.  There  being 
plenty  of  trees,  I  could  look  out  for  myself.  But 
she  waxed  enthusiastic  over  the  prospect  of  fresh 
meat,  and  hid  away  behind  some  bushes,  where  she 
was  reasonably  safe.  I  went  off'  to  an  ant  hill,  in 
another  direction,  and  fired,  wounding  the  animal 


90      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

in  the  abdomen.  Instead  of  charging  the  ant  hill, 
as  I  had  expected,  he  galloped  straight  ahead,  and 
I  did  not  dare  to  fire  again,  lest  he  veer  and  catch 
sight  of  my  wife.  We  followed  his  spoor  of  blood 
and  half-digested  food  for  four  miles,  but  could 
not  get  him. 

About  that  time  mj  boys  spied  a  few  bees  and 
quickly  made  their  way  to  a  tree  in  which  was  the 
nest.  One  man  climbed  the  tree,  another  made  a 
smudge  of  old  rags  which  he  tore  from  his  scanty 
loin  cloth,  and  the  first  man  shoved  it  into  a  small 
opening  in  the  tree.  A  third  man  quickly  chopped 
off  a  piece  of  bark,  which  he  made  into  a  trough. 
The  first  man  reached  into  the  tree  and  pulled  out 
chunk  after  chunk  of  honey  without  the  least  sign 
of  fear,  although  the  bees  were  crawling  all  over 
his  hands  and  arms. 

It  was  now  nearly  noon  and  I  was  faint  from 
the  chase,  so  I  took  one  fine  piece  of  honey  and  ate 
it,  but  its  effect  on  me  was  very  different  from  that 
on  Jonathan,  the  valiant  son  of  Saul.  My  eyes 
were  not  enlightened,  and  I  soon  lost  all  my  valor 
and,  subsequently,  the  honey. 

The  beauty  of  the  country  through  which  we 
were  passing  was  a  continual  delight  to  the  eye. 
There  were  no  high  ranges  of  hills,  but  the  country 
was  undulatory  and  for  the  most  part  well  adapted 


To  THE  Copper  Country.  91 

to  fanning,  though  now  heavily  tnnborcd.  Sonic- 
tinics  there  were  swampy  stretches,  small  streams  of 
beautiful  water  were  abundant,  and  large  rivers 
were  not  infrequent.  Some  of  the  rivers  had  to  be 
crossed  on  tree  trunks,  some  waded,  and  sonie  in  di- 
lapidated bark  canoes  in  charge  of  native  ferry- 
men, to  whom  we  had  to  pay  from  one  to  six  yards 
of  cloth  as  ferriage  for  the  entire  caravan. 

Although  it  was  the  sere  of  the  year,  yet  ex- 
quisite blossoms  greeted  us  on  every  hand,  for  in 
her  great  African  conservatory  Nature  has  ar- 
ranged for  a  succession  of  flowers  the  whole  year 
round.  Adornment  seems  to  be  her  constiint  pas- 
sion, and  even  where  the  veld  fires  leave  a  black- 
ened wake,  in  but  a  few  days  the  sooty  background 
is  starred  with  yellows,  white,  crimson,  and  nearly 
all  other  colors.  And  the  white,  barren,  sandy 
stretches  which  so  tire  the  feet  of  the  traveler  are 
also  cheered  with  masses  of  dainty  he;ither. 

Moreover,  we  were  not  only  in  a  hunter's  para- 
dise, but  what  would  have  been  an  entomologist's 
heaven.  Even  the  attacks  of  the  flics,  mosquitoes, 
and  the  savage  ants  could  not  prevent  a  thorough 
enjoyment  of  tlie  miriads  of  new  and  funny  insects, 
beetles,  and  bugs.  We  never  tired  of  that  sociable 
little  chap,  the  praying  mantis.  He  has  such  an 
endless  variety  of  costumes.     His  conunon  garb  is 


92      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

straw-colored  and  makes  him  look  like  a  piece  of 
dry  grass.  But  sometimes  he  's  green  as  grass, 
then  again  he  copies  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  and  at 
this  time  we  saw  the  most  beautiful  specimen  yet, 
a  mantis  about  ten  inches  long,  an  exact  reproduc- 
tion of  the  rough  moss  which  grows  on  trees.  But 
he  refused  to  be  caught  for  closer  examination,  like 
the  other  members  of  his  family,  who  would  walk 
over  us  and  be  handled  without  the  least  sign  of 
fear. 

The  bees  were  friendly,  too ;  uncomfortably  so. 
As  we  rested  in  camp  the  next  Sunday,  they  lighted 
on  everything  and  everybody,  though  no  one  was 
stung.  Our  bo^'s  foraged  and  brought  in  loads 
of  honey,  and  bees  with  it.  There  were  swarms 
that  da3^  of  bees,  tsetse  flies,  and  big  deer  flies,  all 
of  which  tend  to  keep  the  memory  of  that  Sunday 
green  in  our  minds. 

The  second  week  we  entered  the  Wakaonda 
country,  and  from  there  to  Kanshanshi  were  among 
the  Wakaonda  tribe.  We  were  struck  at  once  with 
the  superior  physical  appearance  of  the  people  and 
the  air  of  alertness  and  ambition  shown  by  them 
in  their  large,  clean  kraals,  well  built,  commodious 
mud  huts,  carved  wooden  stools,  which  they 
brought  out  for  us  to  sit  on,  and  the  absence  of 
the  hemp  pipe.     At  Kanshanshi  we  were  told  that 


To  THE  Copper  Country.  93 

this  tribe  positively  refrains  fi'om  all  hemp-smok- 
ing. We  were  also  told  by  the  manager  of  the 
mine,  who  had  been  among  them  six  years,  that  he 
considered  the  Wakaonda  one  of  the  finest  tribes 
he  had  ever  met  in  a  long  experience  in  South 
Africa. 

On  several  evenings  the  Wakaonda  women  came 
out  to  our  camp  to  look  at  Mrs.  Springer,  she  be- 
ing the  first  white  woman  they  had  ever  seen. 
Their  heads  were  loaded  down  with  beads  and 
cowry  shells  woven  into  the  hair.  It  was  odd,  but 
not  ugly.  Like  most  of  the  women  of  other  tribes 
through  which  we  passed,  their  ornaments  were 
their  chief  articles  of  clothing.  But  in  the  previous 
tribes  there  was  not  enough  ambition  among  the 
people  to  even  wear  ornaments  of  any  amount. 

On  the  fourth  day  out  from  Ivanshanshi  we 
came  to  the  kraal  of  Kaliere,  which  had  been  raided 
by  slavers  from  the  west  only  a  year  previously,  and 
several  persons  carried  away  as  slaves  to  Angola. 

For  a  week  past  I  had  had  one  carrier  very  sick 
with  bloody  flux.  I  had  not  dared  to  leave  him 
where  he  might  be  seized  and  sold  for  a  slave  if 
he  got  well,  but  when  we  got  on  the  main  trail 
from  Kapopo  to  Kanshanshi,  where  hundreds  of 
carriers  were  constantly  going  back  and  forth,  I 
left  him,  and  two  of  his  brothers  with  him. 


94      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

The  next  day  being  Saturday,  we  had  to  reach 
a  kraal  for  Sunday,  so  we  covered  twenty-five  miles 
to  do  it.  I  then  paid  off  three  other  brothers  of 
the  sick  man,  so  that  they  could  go  back  and  take 
care  of  him. 

This  left  me  short  of  carriers,  and  a  big,  fat, 
cheeky  fellow  thought  he  would  take  advantage  of 
the  fact  to  demand  more  pay.  He  influenced  his 
gang  of  six  to  mutiny  and,  when  they  could  not 
accomplish  their  ends,  to  desert.  This  was  the  only 
case  of  desertion  I  had  during  the  entire  journey. 

As  I  then  had  to  load  up  the  machilla  men, 
leaving  only  two  to  carry  the  machilla,  Mrs. 
Springer  had  to  walk  nearly  the  whole  way  the 
next  two  days,  until  we  came  to  the  farm  of  an 
enterprising  young  Frenchman,  M.  Nicoley,  who 
was  making  an  early  and  worthy  start  toward  sup- 
plying grain  and  vegetables  for  the  Kanshanshi 
mine,  seven  miles  away.  What  with  the  fly  pre- 
venting all  cattle  being  used,  and  the  necessity  of 
farming  entirely  Avith  native  hoes,  with  the  lum- 
bersome  hippopotami  tramping  down  his  fields 
by  night  and  the  flocks  of  paroquets  eating  his 
standing  grain  by  day,  his  task  of  establishing  a 
farm  was  not  an  easy  one.  Nevertheless  he  was 
surely  succeeding. 

The  next  morning  M.  Nicoley  let  mc  have  five 


To  THE  Copper  Country.  95 

of  his  men,  and  we  pushed  on  to  Kanshanshi,  the 
second  landmark  in  our  journey. 

This  is  the  first  of  the  great  copper  mines  dis- 
covered by  the  Tanganika  Concessions,  a  large 
English  company.  There  is  evidence  that  it  was 
worked  by  the  natives  of  the  country  centuries  ago. 
Thousands  of  tons  of  copper  have  been  taken  out, 
and  in  some  places  they  had  gone  down  as  low 
as  forty  feet  on  the  reef,  taking  out  only  the  ore. 

Although  in  recent  years  this  part  of  the 
country  had  been  practically  deserted  by  the  na- 
tives, it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  these  ancient 
workings  were  done  by  the  Bantu  race,  for  else- 
where the  natives  still  continue  the  digging,  smelt- 
ing, and  working  of  copper.  Large  copper  coins 
in  the  shape  of  a  Greek  cross  were  in  use  when 
the  white  men  arrived,  in  1899. 

When  the  prospecting  party  reached  that  coun- 
try there  was  no  village  within  twenty-eight  miles 
of  Kanshanshi,  nor  were  there  any  paths  in  the 
almost  unbroken  forest  all  around. 

But  the  Wakaonda  knew  of  the  copper  de- 
posit, and  the  party  was  directed  by  Kasempa  to 
Peripanga,  and  he  conducted  them  to  the  mine, 
receiving  a  few  blankets  as  a  reward  for  his 
services. 

The  Cape-to-Cairo  Railway  had  at  that  time 


96      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

only  reached  Bulawayo,  eight  hundred  miles  to  the 
south.  Therefore,  on  account  of  expensive  and 
slow  transport,  the  development  of  the  mine  had 
been  slow.  Some  of  the  heaviest  machinery  was 
taken  up  on  three  ox-wagons  with  sixty  oxen. 
They  had  to  make  their  road  through  the  fly  belt, 
and  the  oxen  all  died  within  a  few  months. 

At  the  time  of  our  visit  the  mine  had  been 
proved  to  a  depth  of  two  hundred  feet  and  a  sub- 
stantial lode,  which  smelted  from  five  to  forty-five 
per  cent  pure  copper,  with  an  average  of  fifteen 
per  cent,  had  been  exposed.  The  smelted  copper 
contains  an  ounce  of  gold  per  ton. 

Shortly  after  we  passed  through  Kanshanshi  a 
smelting  plant  arrived  and  was  hauled  up  from 
Broken  Hill  by  traction  engines.  About  one  hun- 
dred tons  of  copper  is  now  being  smelted  each 
month  and  hauled  down  to  the  rail  head  by  these 
same  engines. 

This  deposit  of  copper  outcrops  in  several  dis- 
tinct reefs  in  the  kopje,  or  hill,  which  rises  some 
two  hundred  feet  above  the  surrounding  country. 
We  were  taken  to  the  top  of  this  hill  by  Mr.  Rob- 
inson, the  manager. 

It  was  a  decided  relief  to  get  onto  some  such 
eminence,  for  all  the  way  from  Broken  Hill  we 
had  been  traveling  in  an  almost  interminable  for- 


To  THE  Copper  Country.  97 

est.  We  had  crossed  a  few  ridges,  but  on  them  the 
trees  were  thickest  and  so  high  that  no  outlook  was 
afforded.  The  open  spaces  of  country  had  been 
largely  confined  to  low,  swampy  vlejs. 

The  Kanshanshi  kopje  was  like  an  island  in  a 
sea  of  undulating  tree  tops  that  surrounded  us  in 
every  direction.  Occasionally  could  be  seen  an 
open  vlej,  and  here  and  there  a  clearing  for  some 
native  garden  as  the  natives  from  the  thickly  pop- 
ulated sections  are  coming  nearer  to  the  mine. 

Within  the  circle  of  the  horizon  were  perhaps 
a  score  of  other  kopjes,  varying  slightly  in  size, 
the  most  conspicuous  of  them  being  Chafugama, 
a  mountain  just  within  British  territory,  six  miles 
north  of  Kanshanshi. 

From  this  view-point  we  were  able  to  get  a 
good  idea  of  the  Congo-Zambesi  watershed,  which 
is  the  natural  highway  from  the  west  coast  to  the 
heart  of  Central  Africa  and  has  been  used  as  such 
for  decades,  if  not  for  centuries.  Following  its 
course  has  been  the  famous  slave  route,  along  which 
untold  thousands  of  wretched  captives  have  been 
hurried  from  the  interior  tribes  to  be  sold  in  An- 
gola, and  from  there  to  the  markets  of  the  world. 
Moreover,  the  route  is  still  marked  with  the  bones 
of  recent  victims. 

This  watershed  extends  in  an  easterly  and  west- 
7 


98      The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

erly  direction  from  a  point  seven  hundred  miles 
west  of  Kanshanshi  to  near  Lake  Nyasa,  six  hun- 
dred miles  east.  Throughout  this  entire  length 
there  is  a  well-sustained  height  of  from  4,000  to 
5,500  feet,  the  altitude  at  a  number  of  places,  as 
here  at  Kanshanshi,  approximating  a  mile  above 
sea  level. 

This  is  the  roof  of  Central  Africa,  from  which 
flow  two  of  the  largest  and  most  magnificent  water 
systems  of  the  world.  It  is  not  a  high  or  well- 
defined  ridge,  or  a  range  of  hills :  its  elevation  is 
but  little  above  that  of  the  surrounding  country. 

To  use  a  very  homely  illustration,  the  physical 
geography  of  Central  Africa  might  be  likened  to 
the  roof  of  a  shed,  carriage-house,  or  lean-to. 
From  the  coast  all  around  South  Africa  the  land 
rises  rapidly,  so  that  tAvo  hundred  miles  inland 
there  is  usually  an  elevation  of  about  three  thou- 
sand feet,  forming  an  immense  and  for  the  most 
part  a  rather  level  plateau  from  three  to  five  thou- 
sand feet  in  altitude. 

This  constitutes  what  is  popularly  known  as 
the  white  man's  country,  as,  on  account  of  the  alti- 
tude, most  of  this  plateau  is  healthful  and  safe  for 
white  occupation. 

To  the  north  of  the  Congo-Zambesi  watershed 
the  elevation  decreases  nearly  half  inside  of  two 


To  THE  Copper  Country.  99 

hundred  miles.  The  Lualaba  River,  which  rises 
only  a  few  miles  from  Kanshanshi  and  which  will 
be  more  particularly  mentioned  later,  drops  about 
three  thousand  feet  in  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 
This  watershed  therefore  marks  the  rather  abrupt 
end  of  this  plateau,  which  for  two  thousand  miles 
southward  has  an  average  elevation  of  about  four 
thousand  feet,  and  it  marks  also  the  beginning  of 
the  hot,  densely-populated,  unhealthy  regions  of 
the  Congo  basin  to  the  north. 

This  watershed  is  the  line  on  which  the  Ben- 
guella  Railway,  which  is  already  completed  for 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Lobito  Bay,  will 
be  laid.  It  is  said  that  there  are  four  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  of  almost  level  land  without  a  single 
bridge  to  build. 

From  being  the  scene  of  slave-raiding  and  the 
line  of  march  of  the  slave  caravans  dragging  their 
wretched  victims  along  loaded  with  heavy  logs  and 
chains,  spurred  by  the  brutal  lash  of  the  slave- 
driver  or  left  piteously  to  die  of  starvation  or  by 
wild  beasts  by  the  trail,  this  watershed  will  in  a 
very  few  years  be  transformed  into  an  iron  high- 
way over  which  shall  go  the  legitimate  traffic  of 
Central  Africa. 

It  is  also  expected  that  the  bulk  of  the  mail 
and   passenger   traffic   from   London   to   Rhodesia 


100    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

and  the  Transvaal  will  pass  this  way,  as  there  will 
be  a  saving  of  four  to  six  days  by  this  route. 

As  we  stood  there  that  day,  with  the  Wakaonda 
country  stretching  along  in  British  territory  to 
the  south  of  the  divide,  and  with  the  extensive 
mineral  field  all  around  us,  the  strategic  value  of 
this  healthy  location  was  obvious.  Here  in  this 
very  vicinity  was  a  matchless  location  for  a  train- 
ing institution  to  be  related  to  the  work  on  the 
mines,  in  the  kraals,  and  in  the  towns  which  are  to 
spring  up  along  this  rich  mineral  belt. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  TANGANYIKA  CONCESSIONS. 

On  June  10th  we  left  for  Kambove,  having 
spent  a  day  and  a  half  at  Kanshanshi,  where  we 
had  received  all  possible  courtesy  and  kindness 
from  the  men  in  charge  of  the  mine  and  also  from 
the  trader,  Mr.  Ullman,  who  gave  us  carriers  with 
which  to  go  on,  for  I  had  had  to  pay  off  the  eleven 
natives  which  had  been  loaned  to  me  by  the  Broken 
Hill  Mine,  so  that  I  should  have  been  badly  off 
had  not  Mr.  Ullman  been  able  to  supply  me  with 
boys  and  food.  As  we  had  a  straight  trek  of  one 
hundred  miles  without  a  single  kraal  ahead  of  us, 
it  was  necessary  to  take  along  a  week's  supply  of 
food  for  each  carrier. 

Seven  miles  from  Kanshanshi  we  passed  the 
boundary  between  Rhodesia  and  the  Congo  State. 
This  boundary  follows  the  line  of  the  watershed. 
It  gives  a  man  a  new  appreciation  of  the  wonderful 
economy  of  this  world  to  stand  on  that  boundary 
line,  almost  midway  of  the  continent  from  east  to 

101 


102    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

west,  and  realize  that  of  the  tiny  streamlets  which 
are  born  only  a  few  rods  apart,  some  flow  south- 
ward into  the  Zambesi,  down  over  those  magnificent 
falls,  and  at  last  empty  into  the  Indian  Ocean : 
while  on  the  other  side  the  waters  from  those  crystal, 
cold  springs  flow  northward  by  leaps  and  bounds 
to  the  mighty  Congo,  Avhose  muddy  waters  can  be 
seen  six  miles  out  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

In  the  matter  of  paths  we  now  had  a  pleasant 
change.  A  straight  bicycle  path  had  been  cut  and 
cleared  through  the  forest,  so  that  travelers  be- 
tween Kanshanshi  and  Kambove  could  make  the 
whole  110  miles  in  one  day  on  their  bicycles.  But 
we  could  not  have  done  it  on  ours.  It  had  been 
out  of  commission  for  three  or  four  days  before 
we  reached  Kanshanshi,  where  Giff'ord  got  another 
hind  wheel,  so  that  it  had  now  two  hind  wheels.  It 
reminded  us  strongly  of  the  impression  made  by  a 
small  boy's  home-made  pants,  hard  to  tell  which 
way  he  was  going. 

We  had  to  make  our  first  stop  at  Musofi,  fifteen 
miles  from  Kanshanshi,  the  fii^st  government  sta- 
tion of  the  Congo  State,  in  charge  of  a  Mr. 
Thomas,  who  could  speak  English  sufficiently  well 
to  render  conversation  easy.  He  showed  us  every 
kindness  and  made  much  of  the  fact  that  jNIrs. 
Springer  was  the  first  white  lady  to  visit  iSlusofi. 


The  Tanganyika  Concessions.     103 

We  were  also  interested  to  learn  that  he  had  a 
sister  and  uncle  living  in  Newark,  New  Jersey. 

Mr.  Thomas  proved  to  be  an  unusually  enter- 
prising young  man.  The  next  morning  (which 
chanced  to  be  his  twenty -fifth  birthday)  he  took 
us  down  to  his  gardens. 

The  government  post  at  Musofi  is  built  on  an 
elevation  5,600  feet  above  sea  level.  A  half  mile 
away  and  about  500  feet  below  runs  the  Musofi 
River,  a  vigorous  little  stream  of  beautiful  water. 
This  river  valley,  being  well  sheltered  from  cold 
winds  and  frost,  and  capable  of  easy  irrigation, 
affords  an  ideal  place  for  gardens. 

Mr.  Thomas  had  wheat,  tobacco,  Kaffir  corn, 
Indian  corn,  all  kinds  of  table  vegetables,  straw- 
berries, guavas,  pawpaws,  bananas,  lemons,  or- 
anges, etc.,  growing  to  perfection.  The  wheat  was 
particularly  fine  and  was  grown  during  the  rainy 
season,  without  irrigation.  The  rainfall  in  that 
section  along  the  divide  is  very  heavy;  fifty-nine 
inches  were  registered  in  1906.  Mr.  Thomas's  ex- 
perience and  that  of  others  proves  that  this  whole 
district  around  here  is  well  adapted  to  general 
farming. 

The  one  drawback  is  the  tsetse  fly.  And  when 
the  wild  game  is  killed  or  driven  off,  that  too  will 
disappear.     Certain  sections  are  clear  of  them  al- 


104    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

ready.  One  Boer  had  trekked  north  and  had  set- 
tled with  cattle  in  British  territory  near  enough 
to  Musofi  so  that  he  supplied  Mr.  Thomas  with 
milk. 

Mr.  Thomas  informed  me  that  in  his  entire 
district,  which  was  half  as  large  as  the  State  of 
New  Jersey,  there  were  only  1,500  natives.  This 
plateau  has  been  depopulated  chiefly  by  slavers, 
the  Arabs  of  the  north  and  east,  and  the  Portu- 
guese of  the  west.  "The  open  sore  of  the  world," 
truly ! 

Ten  miles  beyond  Musofi  we  crossed  the  first  of 
the  twin  sources  of  the  Lualaba  River,  and  three 
and  a  half  miles  further  crossed  the  other.  They 
were  vigorous  little  brooks,  that  could  easily  be 
jumped,  and  the  memory  of  their  clear,  cold  water 
often  came  back  to  our  minds  as  in  after  days  we 
tramped  hot,  dusty,  sandy  plains  or  camped  be- 
side one  of  the  muddy,  stinking  puddles  to  be 
found  in  the  far-away   Songo   country. 

We  were  still  traveling  in  an  almost  unbroken 
forest.  The  trees  were  large  and  graceful,  from 
forty  to  sixty  feet  in  height.  jNIost  of  tlicm  were 
of  the  ordinary  soft  wood,  useless  for  anything  ex- 
cept firewood  and  temporary  timbering  in  mines 
and  huts. 

Mr.  Robinson,  however,  informed  me  that  he 


The  Tanganyika  Concessions.      105 

had  recently  come  upon  an  ant-  and  borer-proof 
variety,  which  is  exceedingly  valuable  for  mining- 
timber,  a  very  hard,  red  wood.  There  is  also  to 
be  found  mahogany  and  African  teak,  and  the 
skilled  native  mechanics  on  the  mines  make  some 
very  creditable  furniture  out  of  these.  The  coun- 
try is  well  watered,  so  that  we  had  no  difficulty  in 
finding  good  camping-places.  And  for  that  Sun- 
day between  the  two  mines,  we  had  a  particularly 
favorable  spot  for  a  Sabbath's  rest. 

As  has  been  stated,  every  morning  we  had 
prayers  with  the  whole  caravan  before  setting  out 
on  the  trail.  As  the  carriers  represented  several 
diff'erent  tribes,  I  used  English  entirely.  They 
could  only  understand  the  spirit  of  the  act,  in  any 
case. 

But  on  Sundays  I  tried  to  get  a  better  means 
of  communication  and  hold  a  regular  service.  This 
Sunday,  having  eighteen  Wakaonda  carriers  along 
with  us,  I  was  very  desirous  of  at  least  conveying 
to  them  who  we  were  and  what  was  our  business  as 
missionaries.  As  far  as  the  ordinary  daily  needs  of 
the  trail  were  concerned,  I  was  always  able,  with 
the  few  words  I  could  pick  up  in  passing  from 
tribe  to  tribe,  to  make  myself  understood.  But 
when  it  came  to  conveying  deeper  thoughts,  and 


106    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

especially   spiritual   ideas — why,  that  was   an  en- 
tirely different  proposition. 

My  heart  went  out  to  these  Wakaonda,  and  I 
determined,  if  possible,  to  impart  to  them  some- 
thing of  the  Gospel  message.  So  I  looked  about 
for  an  interpreter.  Benjamin  understood  English, 
and  I  could  also  talk  to  him  in  the  Chikaranga. 
But  the  natives  could  not  understand  him.  We  had 
one  carrier  called  Sjambok  (pronounced  Sham- 
buck,  and  meaning  a  whip  made  of  hippo  hide), 
who  could  understand  Benjamin  and  who  could 
also  with  difficulty  make  himself  understood  fairly 
well  to  the  Wakaonda.  And  when  it  was  seen  that 
they  did  not  understand,  usually  the  rest  of  the 
caravan  chimed  in,  and  one  after  another  gave  his 
version,  until  I  think  the  Wakaonda  got  to  know 
that  we  were  not  prospectors,  nor  hunters,  nor 
merely  explorers,  but  that  we  were  teachers,  who 
had  a  Book  from  God,  a  book  which  tells  men  how 
to  live  and  how  to  die.  We  told  them  what  they 
knew,  that  God  the  great  Spirit  created  this  world, 
and  that  He  created  men.  But  we  also  told  them 
what  they  did  not  know,  and  that  was  that  He  was 
their  Father  and  that  Jesus  Christ  was  their  Savior. 
We  said  that  we  were  missionaries,  and  that  by 
and  by  there  would  come  teachers  into  their  coun- 
try to  teach  them  about  God,  and  what  to  do,  and 


The  Tanganyika  Concessions.       107 

what  to  be.  It  was  a  crude  service  indeed,  but  it 
left  a  few  seeds  of  truth,  and  we  may  find  in  the 
future  years  that  some  of  these  grains  of  truth 
fell  into  good  ground. 

This  was  a  country  rich  in  big  and  little  game, 
but  for  three  days  the  tall  grass  prevented  our 
getting  a  shot,  although  we  were  sorely  in  need 
of  more  food  for  our  caravan.  But  one  day  we 
came  to  a  burnt  vlej,  and  there,  to  our  delight, 
sighted  a  whole  herd  of  wart  hogs.  As  the  boys 
came  up  with  the  guns,  I  seized  the  first  one,  which 
was  GifFord's,  and  started  in  pursuit.  Soon  I  came 
to  three  pigs  about  300  yards  away  and  fired  three 
times  without  hitting  any  of  them.  Then  I  found 
I  had  no  more  cartridges  with  me,  so  I  went  back 
to  the  trail  and  waited  for  the  carrier  who  had  the 
ammunition,  when  I  supplied  myself,  and,  taking 
two  bo3^s  with  me,  went  back  to  the  pigs. 

But  the  three  pigs  were  gone,  and  I  wandered 
on  to  the  next  vlej,  where  I  saw  a  big  sow  and  a 
half-grown  pig,  and  got  them  both.  The  big  one 
weighed  about  160  pounds  and  the  small  one  fully 
60  pounds.  We  strapped  the  big  one  onto  a  pole, 
and  the  two  boys  carried  it  between  them,  while  I 
shouldered  the  small  one  and  walked  on  until  we 
overtook  our  caravan,  which  had  been  halted  at  the 
first  water  and  where  Mrs.  Springer  and  Gifford 


108    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

were  waiting  for  me.  GifFord  had  been  out  looking 
for  pigs  too,  but  had  failed  to  see  any. 

Our  coming  was  heralded  with  shouts  of  re- 
joicing, and  there  was  little  but  the  bristles  and 
bones  of  either  pig  that  went  to  waste.  We  saved 
a  couple  of  small  hams  for  ourselves,  and  more  de- 
licious eating  would  be  hard  to  find. 

As  we  nearcd  Kambove  the  character  of  the 
country  changed,  and  the  last  day  was  very  hilly 
and  the  scenery  majestic  and  magnificent.  But  it 
is  hard  to  enjoy  even  the  most  beautiful  country 
when  toiling  along  steep  roads  on  an  empty 
stomach.  Although  we  did  not  know  it,  we  had 
taken  the  easier  and  the  longer  of  the  two  trails 
leading  to  Kambove,  so  that  we  had  just  ten 
miles  more  that  day  than  we  had  expected. 

I  had  taken  the  bicycle  and  gone  on  ahead  in 
the  morning,  expecting  to  strike  the  camp  after 
fourteen  miles,  or  probably  an  hour's  ride.  In- 
stead of  that  I  had  twenty-four  miles  of  such  a 
character  that  I  did  not  arrive  until  one  o'clock. 
Knowing  that  our  carriers  were  all  hungry  and 
that  the  others  would  be  used  up  with  the  extra 
walking,  I  got  the  mine  to  give  me  six  carriers, 
and  we  went  back  to  meet  them.  I  found  both  Mrs. 
Springer  and  GifFord  almost  exhausted  and  foot- 
sore, while  the  carriers  were  hardly  able  to  keep  on. 


The  Tanganyika  Concessions.       109 

and  some  of  them  utterly  unable  to  carry  their  loads 
any  further  from  faintness.  I  bundled  my  wife 
into  the  machilla,  and  six  fresh  men  started  off  on 
the  run  with  her.  Gifford  got  onto  the  wheel  with 
a  sense  of  relief  and  the  boys  who  were  in  the  worst 
condition  had  their  loads  taken  from  them,  and  so 
we  made  the  remaining  four  or  five  miles.  As  the 
machilla  neared  the  camp  the  word  became  noised 
about  that  a  white  woman  was  in  it,  and  soon  an- 
other crowd  like  the  one  at  Kafulafuta  was  run- 
ning alongside  of  it  and  the  singing  could  be  heard 
a  mile  away.  For  here  also  she  was  the  first  white 
woman  to  visit  the  camp. 

As  our  caravan  was  so  badly  used  up,  and  it 
was  already  Thursday  evening,  we  decided  we 
would  have  to  remain  over  until  the  following  Mon- 
day. During  that  time  we  received  every  pos- 
sible courtesy.  The  manager,  Mr.  J.  G.  Watson, 
insisted  on  turning  himself  out  of  Mr.  Grey's  large, 
comfortable  brick  house  and  taking  up  his  abode 
in  a  hut,  while  we  occupied  the  house.  Mr.  Blane, 
the  secretary,  hunted  up  and  furnished  some  most 
valuable  maps,  made  by  prospectors  of  the  com- 
pany, which  were  a  great  help  to  us  on  the  latter 
part  of  our  journey,  and,  in  every  way,  one  and 
all  gave  us  all  possible  assistance  and  a  warm 
welcome. 


110    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

We  were  greatly  interested  to  learn  that  the 
first  recorded  mention  of  these  copper  fields  was 
made  by  Livingstone,  who  heard  of  them  from 
the  natives  during  his  travels.  They  told  him  of  a 
district  called  Katanga,  in  which  there  were  two 
mountains  of  copper,  between  which  was  a  ravine, 
from  the  sands  of  which  gold  Avas  washed. 

We  were  told  that  the  promoters  of  these  min- 
ing companies  were  guided  more  by  Livingstone's 
notes  than  anything  else,  and  they  were  encour- 
aged by  those  notes  to  continue  their  search  for 
the  Katanga  country,  of  which  he  had  written, 
until  the}'  found  it  and  its  two  mountains  of  cop- 
per, Kambove  and  ]Msesa. 

The  first  camp  had  been  built  at  Kambove,  but 
shortly  before  our  arrival  a  new  camp  had  been 
built  and  the  five  white  men  were  being  moved  to 
Msesa.  Of  the  two  mountains,  Kambove  is  far 
the  richer.  It  is  veritably  a  mountain  of  copper 
malachite,  a  soft  sandstone  thoroughly  impreg- 
nated with  copper.  It  has  no  reef  like  Kanshanshi, 
nor  has  it  such  a  variety  of  forms  of  copper.  As 
one  of  the  men  aptly  put  it,  Kanshanshi  is  a  per- 
fect picture  gallery.  But  Kambove  has  the  ad- 
vantage in  size  and  workability.  Even  the  scanty 
soil  on  the  surface  of  tlic  mountains  assays  six 
per  cent  pure  copper.    So  when  the  smelting  plants 


The  Tanganyika  Concessions.     Ill 

are  up,  this  mountain  will  only  need  to  be  quar- 
ried, sliced  away  by  the  cart-load,  and  smelted. 
Shafts  and  cross  drives  have  been  made  all  over 
it  to  the  depth  of  one  hundred  feet,  and  it  has 
proved  to  be  of  varying  richness  throughout, 
with  an  average  yield  of  twelve  per  cent,  and  its 
working  will  be  most  simple  and  inexpensive. 

But  while  Msesa  was  found  less  rich,  it  is  still 
rich  in  copper.  Even  the  grass  is  so  tainted  with 
copper  that  no  animals  can  live  there.  Mr.  George 
Grey  has  experimented  with  sheep,  goats,  pigs, 
dogs,  etc.,  we  were  told,  but  at  the  time  of  our  visit 
only  one  scrawny  goat,  a  lean  sheep,  and  a  small 
dog  remained.  The  last  of  the  pigs  had  been 
named  Violet.  She  seemed  to  thrive  fairly  well, 
but  finding  that  she  could  not  live  on  grass,  took 
to  dieting  on  chickens.  When  it  was  reported  to 
Mr.  Grey  that  Violet  was  living  on  chickens,  he  at 
once  gave  orders  for  her  to  be  eaten.  They  were 
hoping  the  sheep  would  survive  long  enough  to 
furnish  a  Christmas  dinner. 

Farther  south  in  Rhodesia  we  heard  the  rather 
fishy-sounding  report  that  the  early  prospectors 
had  discovered  mines  with  their  field  glasses.  We 
found  the  report  to  be  true  and  easily  explained. 
The  first  party  soon  learned  that  a  treeless  kopje, 
covered  with  scanty,  sickly  grass,  would  be  almost 


112    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

sure  to  contain  copper.  So  they  would  go  to  the 
top  of  one  copper-bearing  hill  and  look  tlu'ough 
their  glasses  for  a  similar  one  and  then  make  their 
way  to  it,  and,  finding  copper  indications,  peg 
it  out. 

Very  little  prospecting  was  now  being  done, 
and,  excepting  two  or  three  mines,  no  development 
was  going  on,  everything  waiting  on  the  con- 
struction of  the  railroad  into  the  country. 

But  certain  investigations  were  being  carried 
on,  and  for  the  next  few  weeks  there  was  to  be  a 
succession  of  parties  consisting  of  engineers,  sur- 
veyors, medical  experts  to  study  the  sleeping  sick- 
ness, etc.  This  latter  subject  presented  a  problem 
which  greatly  affected  the  labor  supply  of  the 
mines. 

The  climate  at  Kambove  is  excellent  and  fever 
almost  unknown.  The  elevation  of  the  camp  is 
about  six  thousand  feet,  the  country  is  very  hilly, 
and  the  land  well  drained  and  well  watered  by 
sparkling  mountain  streams.  At  present  game 
abounds.  The  day  we  arrived  six  zebra  had  been 
killed,  and  brought  into  camp,  and  we  found  their 
flesh  very  good  eating  indeed.  The  next  day  a  big 
antelope  was  shot  and  we  were  given  a  fine  big 
shoulder  to  roast  and  take  along  with  us. 

A   garden   maintained   by   the   company   par- 


The  Tanganyika  Concessions.      113 

ticularly  interested  us.  Here,  under  the  direction 
of  a  Swahili,  an  east  coast  native,  were  grown 
all  kinds  of  garden  vegetables,  several  fruits,  as 
lemons,  oranges,  bananas,  and  pawpaws,  wheat, 
and  quantities  of  all  kinds  of  flowers,  including 
fine  La  France  roses,  California  poppies,  and  giant 
sunflowers. 

Fifty  miles  to  the  east  of  Kambove  is  the 
Garenganze  Mission,  at  Nkoni  Hill,  established  by 
Mr.  Frederick  Arnot,  twenty-three  years  pre- 
viously. He  belongs  to  and  is  supported  by  the 
Open  Brethren.  Their  work  extends  eastward  and 
northward  of  Nkoni  Hill  among  a  tribe  whose  big 
chief  used  to  be  Msiri. 

From  Kambove  we  went  nearly  due  west  ninety- 
four  miles  to  the  Ruwi  mining  camp.  On  the 
second  day  we  passed  Mikoba's  kraal,  which  was 
the  only  one  on  the  path  between  Kanshanshi  and 
Ruwi.  The  chief  and  his  people  came  out  to 
us  with  copper  knives,  axes,  hoes,  etc.,  for  sale. 
They  had  themselves  smelted  the  copper  ore  and 
had  beaten  it  into  these  various  implements  and 
we  bought  all  we  could  afford  to  carry,  which  were 
but  few. 

It  was  no  small  credit  to  this  chief,  Mikoba, 
that  he  had  built  for  the  company  a  bridge  a  mile 
8 


114    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

long  on  simple  trestles  over  a  bad  swamp  just  be- 
yond his  kraal. 

The  trail  to  Ruwi  was,  on  the  whole,  a  pretty 
rough  one,  with  hills,  and  swamps,  and  rivers.  The 
day  before  we  reached  Ruwi,  ]Mr.  Gilford  was 
quietly  wheeling  along  when  the  path  made  a 
sudden  bend  around  an  ant  hill  and  he  nearly  came 
onto  a  leopard  which  was  preparing  to  lie  down 
in  the  path.  He  dismounted  without  any  unnec- 
essary delay  and  at  the  click  of  his  pedal  the  huge 
beast,  without  looking  to  see  what  the  noise  was, 
bounded  off  at  once  into  the  forest.  This  was  his 
second  leopard. 

The  first  one  he  had  seen  while  we  were  at 
Kambove,  when  word  was  brought  that  the  na- 
tives had  seen  a  leopard,  and,  as  one  had  been 
regularly  visiting  the  hen  coop,  Mr.  Blane  de- 
cided to  go  after  it.  Gilford  gladly  joined  him 
and  soon  we  heard  shots.  Not  long  after  our 
friend  appeared  and  I  called  out,  "Well,  who  got 
the  leopard.'"'  With  a  wry  face,  he  laconically 
replied,  "I  got  the  scare,  but  Blane  got  the 
leopard."  It  seems  that  while  crawling  through 
some  thick  jungle  Gilford  had  put  up  the  leopard 
not  more  than  six  feet  away,  and  the  first  intima- 
tion he  had  of  its  presence  was  a  savage  snarl. 
Instantly  the  leopard  bounded  from  him  to  where 


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The  Tanganyika  Concessions.      115 

Mr.  Blane  and  the  natives  were  on  the  search  and 
all  hands  opened  such  a  volley  that  he  was  soon 
dispatched. 

June  21st  is  the  shortest  day  in  the  year  in 
Southern  Africa.  On  that  morning  we  again 
crossed  the  Lualaba  River,  which  was  no  longer 
"to  the  ankles,"  but  it  had  become  a  deep,  wide 
river  with  a  flow  of  74,200  cubic  feet  of  water  per 
minute.  This  measurement  was  taken  in  August 
when  the  river  would  be  lowest. 

Twelve  miles  below  our  point  of  crossing  is 
the  Nzilo  Gorge,  in  which  are  several  cataracts  and 
falls,  one,  the  Lukaka  Falls,  having  a  sheer  drop 
of  one  hundred  feet.  Altogether  within  a  few 
miles  the  river  drops  approximately  fifteen  hundred 
feet.  This  will  give  not  far  from  150,000  horse- 
power. The  Lualaba  River  cuts  directly  across 
the  copper  belt,  and  these  water  powers  lie  be- 
tween the  copper  and  tin  belts  in  a  very  rugged 
country. 

The  glossina  palpalis  has  been  found  in  this 
gorge.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  this  and  the 
glossina  morsitans,  or  cattle  fly,  confine  them- 
selves to  restricted  areas.  The  latter  variety  is 
unusually  bad  between  Kambove  and  this  river,  so 
much  so  that  white  men  usually  go  onto  that  trail 
provided  with  mosquito  net  veils  and  heavy  gloves. 


116    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Yet  on  the  west  side,  toward  Ruwi,  there  are  no 
tsetse  flies,  and  only  a  few  miles  from  the  Lualaba 
the  company's  cattle  were  grazing  in  perfect  safety 
and  thriving  well. 

Ruwi  camp  is  not  so  unlike  that  at  Kambove, 
or  Msesa,  as  the  new  camp  is  named.  Located  in 
the  primitive  forest,  the  same  care  has  been  taken 
to  preserve  the  shade  and  beauty  of  the  natural 
woods  as  much  as  possible. 

We  were  kindly  received  by  the  acting  man- 
ager, Mr.  Cookson,  who  took  us  to  some  comfort- 
able guest  huts  along  a  sharp  ridge  overlooking 
the  Lualaba  Valley  and  a  stretch  of  flat  country 
fully  forty  miles  to  the  northeast. 

Of  the  seven  white  men  at  Ruwi,  only  two  of 
them  were  exclusively  engaged  on  that  mine,  this 
being  the  headquarters  for  the  western  group  of 
mines.  It  is  near  the  western  end  of  the  copper 
belt  so  far  as  is  known.  About  forty  miles  north 
of  here  is  Busanga,  on  the  Lualaba  River.  Bu- 
sanga  is  the  beginning  of  the  tin  belt,  which  has 
been  proved  to  exist  almost  without  a  break  for  a 
distance  of  fully  110  miles  in  a  northeasterly  di- 
rection. 

Iron  is  also  found  in  large  quantities  all  about 
the  country.  And  besides  the  minerals  mentioned, 
a  number  of  subsidiary  metals,  such  as  lead,  vana- 


The  Tanganyika  Concessions.       117 

dium,  and  palladium,  have  been  found  in  limited 
quantities. 

Limestone  is  general  throughout  the  country, 
coal  shale  has  been  found,  and  expectations  are 
entertained  of  finding  commercial  coal,  such  as 
has  been  found  in  large  quantities  in  Southern 
Rhodesia. 

In  smelting  copper  certain  other  elements  are 
necessary,  such  as  iron  and  lime,  and  where  they 
do  not  exist  in  connection  with  the  mines,  they 
have  to  be  added.  Several  of  these  mines  have 
enough  of  these  minerals  combined  with  the  cop- 
per to  be  what  is  known  as  self-fluxing.  So  favor- 
able are  the  conditions  and  so  easily  accessible 
all  the  necessary  elements  in  treating  the  ore,  and 
so  near  an  abundance  of  electrical  power,  that  one 
of  the  men  put  it  well  when  he  said  in  all  rev- 
erence, "God  made  this  country  to  produce  copper." 

Besides  the  copper  mines  in  this  vicinity,  there 
is  an  area  of  shed  gold  adjacent  to  the  camp. 
This  gold  they  were  able  to  recover  by  the  primi- 
tive method  of  washing  in  sluice  boxes.  One  nug- 
get washed  out  weighed  nine  ounces,  sixteen  penny- 
weight. Up  to  September  30,  1905,  there  had 
been  over  seven  thousand  ounces  of  gold  washed. 
This  mine  has  been  a  producer  of  revenue  for  some 
time. 


118    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Four  diamonds  have  been  found,  and  prospect- 
ing is  being  carried  on  over  a  wide  area  to  discover 
their  source.  In  short,  no  one  yet  knows  what 
the  true  wealth  of  the  concessions  is.  In  the  lab- 
oratory we  saw  samples  of  minerals  from  different 
parts,  and  from  Mr.  Studt,  the  expert  metallurgist, 
we  obtained  much  information  about  the  entire 
mineral  belt,  confirming  and  enlarging  upon  the 
reports  and  information  we  had  been  gathering 
along  the  way  and  what  we  had  seen  with  our  own 
eyes.  And  we  were  also  much  indebted  to  Mr. 
Studt  for  an  excellent  collection  of  representative 
samples  to  take  to  America  with  us. 

Our  own  observations  and  investigations  had 
convinced  us  of  the  existence  within  the  territory 
of  the  Tanganyika  Concessions  not  only  of  a 
"copper  belt  which  will  yet  astonish  the  world," 
but  also  of  large  deposits  of  other  minerals  as  well. 
The  situation  as  a  whole  is  well  summed  up  in 
an  editorial  which  appeared  in  the  "African 
World"  June  27,  1908,  a  year  after  our  visit  to 
the  Concessions:  "Probably  few  people  are  aware 
of  the  magnitude  of  Central  African  interests  em- 
braced in  the  negotiations  now  rapidly  arriving  at 
final  stages  (which  were  completed  and  the  agree- 
ments signed  early  in  July)  between  the  powerful 
groups   controlling  the   Tanganyika   Concessions, 


The  Tanganyika  Concessions.      119 

and  associated  companies,  and  the  great  Rhodesian 
railway  interests.  Slowly,  but  surely,  the  very 
center  of  Africa  has  been  brought  to  the  point 
that  the  iron  links  of  which  Cecil  Rhodes  dreamt 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  will  soon  join  up  the 
backbone  of  the  Cape-to-Cairo  project  coastwards 
west  and  east.  Thanks  to  Mr.  Robert  Williams's 
statesmanlike  work  in  the  past  five  years,  the  rail- 
roads of  three  great  and  friendly  nations  will  join 
hands  in  Central  Africa,  which  is  only  waiting  for 
the  opportunity  granted  by  rapid  transit  to  blue 
water  to  yield  a  mineral  wealth  undreamt  of  a 
few  years  ago,  but  now  proved  to  exist  beyond  all 
possible  doubts." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MINES    AND    MISSIONARY    OPPOR- 
TUNITIES. 

Africa  is  unique  among  the  continents.  It  is 
the  last  to  be  thoroughly  explored  and  made 
known  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  has  laid  to 
one  side  of  the  world  movement,  east  and  west, 
along  which  the  other  nations  have  been  moving 
for  centuries. 

A  very  potent  influence  in  the  development  of 
the  Aryan  races  has  been  their  constant  contact 
and  contest  with  other  peoples,  some  similar  and 
some  dissimilar  to  themselves ;  also,  the  migration 
from  one  country  to  another,  the  international 
commerce  of  products  and  ideas,  all  greatly  facili- 
tated by  the  very  contour  of  those  northern  coun- 
tries and  by  their  embayed  coasts. 

Africa,  on  the  contrary,  has  but  few  harbors 
and  no  great  indentations  on  all  its  thousands  of 
miles  of  coast  line,  and  though  its  northern  shore 
has  been  the  stage  of  action  of  many  nations,  yet 

120 


Missionary  Opportunities.         121 

the  great  Sahara  has  been  more  effective  than  a 
Chinese  wall  in  guarding  the  whole  continent  to 
the  south  and  keeping  it  in  a  state  of  continual 
isolation. 

Arabs  and  Phoenicians  traded  along  the  east 
Coast  for  centuries,  but  have  left  little  trace  upon 
the  peoples  of  the  interior.  And  except  for  these 
small  influences,  the  natives  of  Africa  had  prac- 
tically no  contact  with  the  outside  world  for 
centuries. 

During  the  fifteenth  century  there  came  a  pe- 
riod of  extensive  exploration,  in  which  Spain  and 
Portugal  took  the  most  active  part.  When  certain 
difficulties  arose  between  the  two  countries,  the 
Pope  interfered  and  appointed  each  a  separate 
province,  Spain  to  the  west  and  Portugal  to 
the  east. 

Thus  while  Spain  made  the  great  discoveries 
in  the  western  world,  Portugal  explored  the  coast 
line  of  the  great  sphinx-like  continent  to  the  south 
and  penetrated  some  distance  into  the  interior  at 
a  few  places. 

Not  the  least  valuable  of  the  assets  of  Africa 
was  that  of  a  physically  virile,  tractable,  and 
trusty  people.  The  western  world  discovered  by 
Spain  lacked  just  that  asset,  though  its  wealth  of 
fertile  lands,  as  was  early  seen,  was  just  waiting 


122    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

to  be  cultivated  in  order  to  yield  rich  returns. 
Therefore,  the  various  nations  of  Europe  engaged 
in  the  transportation  of  the  unwilling,  but  de- 
fenseless, natives  of  Africa  to  the  western  conti- 
nent and  islands. 

But  the  vast  interior  of  Africa,  with  its  tribes 
and  peoples  not  near  the  coast,  remained  in  their 
isolation  (save  for  the  attacks  of  the  Arab  and 
Portuguese  slavers),  participating  but  little  in  the 
general  world  movement,  neither  advancing  in  the 
scale  of  civilization  nor  achieving  anything  of  per- 
manence, and  contributing  practically  nothing  to 
the  development  of  the  resources  of  the  world,  or 
to  the  power  and  comfort  of  man. 

On  the  contrary,  they  were  broken  and  de- 
teriorated by  the  slave  trade,  spending  their  years 
in  indolent  existence,  or  following  the  warpath  in 
the  ceaseless  turmoil  of  tribes  and  the  gratification 
of  a  savage  bloodthirstiness. 

And  so  might  Africa  have  waded  on  in  blood 
through  future  centuries,  a  few  Dutch  folk  going 
somewhat  inland  from  the  southern  extremity  in 
search  of  broad  valleys  for  their  flocks,  and  a  few 
Britishers  and  other  Europeans  dwelling  and 
trading  in  the  seaport  towns.  Railroads  might 
have  crept  slowly  inland  through  decades,  and  the 
more  healthful  parts  of  the  southern  end  gradually 


Missionary  Opportunities.         123 

been  settled  by  the  whites,  while  all  the  rest  were 
left  to  the  natives  and  the  few  missionaries  who 
might  seek  them  out. 

But  such  was  not,  is  not,  to  be  the  history  of 
Africa.  Livingstone's  first  book  of  travels  turned 
the  eyes  of  the  whole  civilized  world  upon  that 
hitherto  unknown  continent  and  its  possible 
wealth,  and  started  a  tide  of  inquiry  which  has 
sent  out  hundreds  of  explorers  in  his  wake. 

But  it  was  not  until  the  discovery  of  the  dia- 
mond mines  at  Kimberly  and  the  gold  mines  of 
Johannesburg,  in  the  early  eighties  of  the  last 
century,  that  the  real  exploitation  of  Africa  began. 
And  now  each  year,  and  almost  each  month,  but 
adds  new  confirmation  to  the  wealth  of  already  dis- 
covered areas,  and  extends  the  list  of  sections  of 
the  continent  which  are  found  to  be  mineralized. 

Gold  has  been  found,  and  the  world  clamors 
for  gold ;  copper  has  been  found,  and  the  electrical 
age  must  have  copper;  rubber  is  there  in  immense 
quantities,  and  never  were  there  so  many  uses  for 
rubber,  so  much  so  that  the  demand  is  still  greatly 
in  excess  of  the  supply ;  the  wealth  of  Europe  and 
America  has  so  increased  as  to  make  a  ready  market 
for  the  luxuries  of  ostrich  feathers,  ivory,  dia- 
monds, and  other  precious  stones. 

What  the  world  wants  of  a  material  nature  the 


124    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

world  is  bound  to  have,  and  thus  the  great  activity 
of  prospecting,  building  railroads,  and  the  general 
development  of  the  resources  of  South  Africa. 

Railroads  are  absolutely  aicccssary  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  interior  of  Africa.  But  as  a 
certain  magnate  once  said  to  a  delegation  which 
waited  on  him,  "Railroads  are  not  built  on  senti- 
ment. But,"  he  added,  "wherever  a  mineral  belt 
or  any  other  industry  gives  promise  of  traffic  to 
warrant  it,  there  you  can  count  on  it  we  will  build 
a  railroad." 

The  mineral  wealth  of  Africa,  then,  is  the 
lodestone  which  is  attracting  the  extensive  immi- 
gration of  Europeans  to  all  parts  of  the  continent, 
of  whom  there  is  now  estimated  to  be  about  one  and 
a  half  million  permanent  settlers  in  South  Africa 
alone.  And  these  numbers  will  steadily  increase, 
as  the  climate  is  far  more  salubrious  than  the  cli- 
mates in  which  most  of  the  immigrants  have  been 
born.  Directly  or  indirectly,  it  is  the  mine  which 
contributes  to  the  support  of  all  of  these,  whether 
they  be  directly  employed  in  mining,  trade,  or 
agriculture. 

A  study  of  the  situation  will  soon  convince  one 
of  the  natural  relation  between  the  development 
of  the  mineral  wealth  and  the  industrial  develop- 
ment of  the  natives.     The  natives  will  be  employed 


Missionary  Opportunities.         125 

on  the  mines,  farms,  railroads,  in  the  stores,  and 
shops  under  the  supervision  of  skilled  white  men. 

The  necessity  of  reducing  the  working  cost 
to  the  lowest  possible  figure,  and  the  highly  in- 
flated salaries  which  have  been  paid  in  South  Africa 
to  the  white  men,  leads  each  mine  or  other  busi- 
ness to  give  attention  to  the  training  of  the 
brightest  native  employees  to  do  much  of  the  work 
of  drilling,  running  engines,  time-keeping,  etc. — 
work  that  has  formerly  been  done  by  whites. 

This  results  in  the  raising  up  of  a  large  band 
of  natives  as  industrial  agents,  at  the  same  time 
increasing  their  pay  and  their  earning  power. 

In  a  certain  sense,  every  mine  becomes  an  in- 
dustrial training  school  for  the  natives.  If  the 
number  of  applicants  for  work  are  insufficient,  the 
mine  sends  out  agents  to  remote,  distant,  and  often- 
times unhealthy  sections  to  recruit  labor  for  the 
mines. 

They  house,  feed,  and  control  them;  they  give 
them  that  fundamental  discipline  of  regularity  and 
continuity  of  labor,  of  working  for  what  they  re- 
ceive, of  fulfillment  of  contract,  and  demonstrate 
on  pay  day  that  a  man  is  compensated  according 
to  the  results  he  has  produced,  besides  not  a  few 
other  wholesome  lessons  of  respect  for  others,  of 
honor,  and  of  honesty.     To  be  sure,  on  some  mines 


126    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

there  have  been,  and  doubtless  will  be,  certain  un- 
desirable and  unfavorable  conditions  for  the  na- 
tives. Yet,  on  the  whole,  the  great  majority  will, 
from  self-interest,  if  nothing  more,  deal  fairly  and 
justly  with  the  native.  They  have  learned  to  do 
this,  so  that  when  the  native  returns  to  his  section 
of  country  his  good  report  will  induce  his  friends 
to  go  to  work  at  the  same  place,  and  in  a  few 
months  or  a  year's  time  he  will  return  to  work, 
bringing  a  party  of  his  friends  with  him. 

This  industrial  training,  as  far  as  it  goes,  is 
excellent  and  important  in  the  elevating  of  a 
savage  race,  but  it  does  not  go  far  enough. 

"The  inefficiency  of  exclusive  industrial  and 
educational  work  may  be  illustrated  by  a  single  in- 
cident. Bishop  Colenso,  sharing  the  opinion  often 
expressed  by  captious  critics,  that  civilization 
should  precede  Christianity,  selected  twelve  boys 
from  among  the  superior  race  of  Zulus.  He  con- 
scientiously and  persistently  devoted  himself  to 
their  education  and  training,  without  a  word  or  a 
suggestion  of  religion.  They  were  bound  over  to 
him  for  a  term  of  years  on  this  condition.  The 
susceptible  Africans  made  rapid  progress.  When 
at  last  the  good  bishop  thought  they  were  civ- 
ilized, he  told  them  that  all  he  liad  done  was  simply 
preliminary  and   was   incomplete  without  the   im- 


A   xMuKAoNDA   Chief  and  Attendant— 
THE  Men  to  be  Reached. 


Missionary  Opportunities.         127 

measurably  greater  thing  —  the  acceptance  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  their  personal  Savior  and  of  His 
Gospel  as  their  rule  of  life.  The  next  morning 
all  that  was  left  of  his  promising  proteges  was 
their  'civilized'  clothing.  They  had  donned  their 
loin-cloths  and  gone — back  to  their  pagan  homes, 
back  to  their  pagan  customs."* 

Thus  while  the  mines  have  a  valuable  part  in 
the  physical  and  mental  training  of  the  native, 
the  Church  is  needed  to  give  the  all-important 
spiritual  training,  without  which  the  other  is  of 
no  particular  significance  to  them  and  is  a  mini- 
mum of  benefit. 

And  here  the  Church  finds  a  wide  opportunity 
by  opening  up  night  schools  for  the  natives  who 
work  on  the  day  shifts  and  day  schools  for  those 
on  the  night  shifts.  The  natives  are  attracted  by 
the  opportunity  of  learning  to  read  and  write  Eng- 
lish. They  have  considered  that  much  of  the 
ability  and  superiority  of  the  white  man  is  trace- 
able to  his  ability  to  read  and  write.  And  their 
excessively  imitative  natures  lead  them  to  desire 
to  learn  to  read  and  write  also. 

But  while  they  enter  the  schools  from  this 
motive,  the  evangelistic  spirit  and  exercises  at  the 
opening  of  the  school,  the  Christian  hymns  in  the 
vernacular,  awaken  their  religious  natures. 

*  "  Daybreak  in  the  Dark  Continent,"  Naylor. 


128    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

On  the  Sabbath,  evangehstic  services  are  held 
in  the  mine  compounds,  and,  though  the  audience 
is  a  constantly  shifting  one,  yet  experience  has 
demonstrated  the  value  of  such  services,  and  num- 
bers are  reached  and  converted  in  just  this  way  on 
the  mines  at  Johannesburg,  Kimbcrl}^,  Old  Umtali, 
Penhalanga,  and  elsewhere. 

The  schoolhouses  or,  as  at  Kimberly,  the  rooms 
are  used  for  regular  services  on  Sundays,  and 
through  the  week  for  class-meetings  and  inquirers. 

When  a  native  young  man  on  the  mines  steps 
out  and  becomes  a  Christian  it  usually  means  that 
he  has  counted  the  cost  and  means  business.  Such 
a  young  man  at  once  begins  to  do  the  most  ef- 
fective preaching,  after  the  manner  of  the  early 
Christians,  by  simply  testifying  to  his  fellows  of 
what  he  has  experienced. 

Certain  of  these  young  men  will  develop 
marked  ability  in  the  soul-saving  line  and  feel 
the  call  to  devote  their  lives  to  it.  These  need  the 
help  of  special  training  in  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. Hundreds  of  the  ordinary  men  will  return 
to  their  own  people,  carrying  with  them  a  portion 
of  the  Bible  in  their  own  tongue,  there  to  begin 
the  seed-sowing  which  shall  reap  a  fruitful  harvest. 

Let  me  give  one  example:  Many  years  ago 
two   men    from   the   Blaauw   Berg   Range,   in   the 


Missionary  Opportunities.         129 

northwestern  part  of  the  Transvaal,  traveled  some 
seven  hundred  miles  to  work  at  Port  Elizabeth, 
which  was  practically  the  head  of  civilization  fifty 
years  ago.  Here  they  worked  on  the  docks  shovel- 
ing coal  by  day  and  attending  the  Wesleyan  night 
school  evenings.  They  were  both  converted,  bap- 
tized, and  joined  the  Church. 

When,  after  three  years,  the  time  came  for 
their  return  to  their  own  people,  they  asked  the 
missionary  if  he  would  not  send  a  teacher  to  their 
country.  "We  have  heard  and  received  the  Good 
News,"  they  said,  "and  now  we  must  go  back  to 
our  people  who  know  nothing.  We  are  as  chil- 
dren :  we  only  know  a  little.  Will  you  not  send 
us  a  teacher  who  will  show  us  and  our  people  the 
good  way  of  God.'"' 

The  missionary  promised  them  he  would  do 
his  best  and  send  them  the  first  missionary  avail- 
able. But  the  years  wore  on,  and  the  missionaries 
were  few,  and  each  one  was  needed  elsewhere  more 
than  there.  And  then  the  man  of  God  who  made 
the  promise  died  and  the  men  from  the  Blaauw 
Bergs  were  long  since  forgotten.  Twenty-five 
years  later  a  young  man  by  the  name  of  Lowe  was 
passing  through  that  district  to  open  up  new  work 
under  the  Wesleyans.  As  he  approached  one  kraal, 
the  people  came  thronging  out  to  -meet  him  with 
9 


130    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

shouts  and  excitement  which  left  him  in  doubt 
whether  it  meant  peace  or  war. 

Calling  his  interpreter,  he  asked  the  cause  of 
all  this  demonstration.  The  interpreter  talked  with 
two  elderly  men  and  after  awhile  got  their  story. 
The}'  were  the  same  two  men  who,  a  quarter  of 
a  century  before,  had  left  Port  Elizabeth  for  the 
perilous  journey  to  the  interior,  past  hostile  Boers 
and  unfriendly  tribes. 

"We  knew  God  would  send  us  a  missionary," 
they  exclaimed  with  deep  emotion.  "All  these 
years  we  've  been  praying  for  a  teacher  to  come 
and  ever}-  day  Ave  have  watched  this  trail  for  him. 
We  knew  he  would  come,  and  now  he  has."  And 
their  delight  knew  no  bounds. 

He  went  into  the  kraal  and  found  it  unusually 
clean  and  tidy.  The  huts  were  comfortable  and 
it  was  noticeable  that  all  the  women  were  neatly 
and  decently  clothed  in  calico. 

He  found  that  all  the  men  and  boys  had  been 
taught  to  read  and  write,  that  they  had  kept  the 
Sabbath,  had  refrained  from  having  more  than 
one  wife,  and,  in  short,  had  become  a  Christian 
village. 

Later  on  they  came  to  liini  m  itli  their  Zulu 
Bibles  and  asked  if  he  thought  they  could  get 
new  ones.     These  and  a  couple  of  primers  were 


Missionary  Opportunities.         131 

all  the  books  they  had  taken  back  with  them.  The 
Bibles  (I  am  not  sure  they  had  more  than  the  New 
Testament)  were  carefully  tied  up  in  red  ban- 
dana handkerchiefs,  as  they  had  been  used  until 
every  leaf  was  separated  from  the  binding.  And 
as  he  looked  them  over,  he  found  many  pages  so 
well  thumbed  that  the  print  was  indecipherable. 
But  it  hardly  mattered,  as  they  knew  those  pages 
by  heart. 

When  he  looked  among  his  books  to  get  out 
new  ones,  they  said  humbly,  "And  could  we  please 
have  a  little  larger  print.''  These  eyes  of  ours  are 
dimmer  than  they  used  to  be.  But  they  have  seen 
the  missionary  whom  we  knew  God  would  send  us 
and  now  our  hearts  are  white  and  glad." 

There  have  been  hundreds  of  similar  cases,  only 
let  us  hope  that  in  few  the  faithful  eyes  had  time 
to  grow  dim  as  they  watched  the  trail  on  which 
they  knew  the  missionary  would  surely  come. 

Now,  in  view  of  the  foregoing  facts,  it  goes 
without  saying  that  there  is  a  wonderful  oppor- 
tunity open  in  the  mining  districts  of  Central 
Africa  not  only  to  reach  the  thousands  in  the  com- 
pound work  on  the  mines,  but  to  have  a  large  train- 
ing center  where  the  more  promising  class  of  con- 
verts may  get  a  higher  education  and  training  for 
Christian  service  and  to  be  fitted  to  adapt  them- 


132    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

selves  to  all  the  conditions  of  the  complex  civiliza- 
tion which  will  soon  sweep  into  that  country  like 
a  great  tidal  wave. 

There  should  be  kindergarten  and  primary 
schools  for  the  little  children,  Bible  and  theological 
training  schools,  a  printing  press  for  the  publica- 
tion of  books  and  papers  in  the  vernacular,  etc. 

A  look  at  the  map  makes  it  perfectly  obvious 
that  this  rich  mineral  field  is  a  strategic  center  for 
missionary  work,  a  point  from  which  the  Gospel 
influences  will  spread  and  radiate  to  all  parts  of 
the  continent. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
IN  CONGO  TERRITORY. 

It  had  been  our  original  purpose  to  proceed 
due  west  from  Ruwi  to  Malange,  which  would  have 
taken  us  along  the  proposed  line  of  extensions  of 
our  missions  in  Angola,  right  through  the  Lunda 
country  and  also  that  of  the  Bangala  tribe,  a  dis- 
trict that  has  not  yet  been  explored  to  any  great 
extent,  and  many  parts  of  which  no  white  man 
has  ever  penetrated. 

The  district  lying  between  Ruwi  and  the  Kassai 
River  is  one  of  the  most  remote  sections  of  the 
Congo  State.  It  has  never  been  effectively  oc- 
cupied by  the  government  and  the  tribes  there  have 
the  reputation  of  being  rank  cannibals,  partic- 
ularly in  time  of  war,  when  they  feast  on  their 
enemies. 

However,  in  times  of  peace,  the  ordinary  (not 
belligerent)  white  man  might  go  among  them  and 
by  careful  conduct  might  pass  through  with  safety 
for  himself  and  his  carriers. 

133 


134    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

This  had  been  one  reason  why  we  wanted  car- 
riers from  Broken  Hill  to  go  right  through  to  the 
west  coast  with  us,  as  we  wished  to  go  through 
these  tribes  without  fear  of  our  carriers  either  de- 
serting us  or  of  their  proving  offensive.  We  knew 
that  we  could  not  on  any  account  induce  carriers 
from  a  near-by  tribe  to  venture  onto  the  ground 
of  their  sanguinary  enemies. 

More  to  be  feared  than  the  cannibals  them- 
selves was  a  roving  band  of  revolted  soldiery  from 
the  Congo  State.  Recruited  themselves  from  can- 
nibal tribes,  they  had  deserted  with  their  guns  and 
ammunition,  and  had  for  two  or  more  years  ter- 
rorized this  corner  of  the  Congo  State,  raiding  the 
towns,  capturing  slaves  for  the  west  coast  mar- 
ket, disposing  of  the  slaves  to  traders,  who  paid 
them  in  rifles  and  ammunition,  etc.  They  were 
a  desperate  band  of  robbers,  plunderers,  and 
slavers. 

We  met  one  white  man  at  Broken  Hill  who 
was  captured  by  them  and  held  ten  days.  He  had 
a  rough  experience  at  their  hands  and  considered 
himself  lucky  to  have  escaped  with  his  life. 

At  Kanshanshi  we  first  heard  that  hostilities 
had  broken  out  between  the  government  and  the 
natives  west  of  Ruwi.  At  Musofi,  Mr.  Thomas 
confirmed  the  report  and  refused  to  give  us  per- 


In  Congo  Territory.  135 

mission  to  go  that  way.  At  Kambovc  we  learned 
that  the  matter  was  so  serious  that  one  of  the  Con- 
cessions camps  had  been  fired  on  not  far  from  Ruwi. 
And  so  we  had  to  give  up  all  idea  of  proceeding 
bj  the  due  west  route. 

We  had,  therefore,  to  make  for  Nanakandundu, 
or  Njakatoro,  where  there  is  a  mission  station  and 
a  Portuguese  fort.  There  was  another  mission  be- 
tween Ruwi  and  there,  called  Kalene  Hill,  a  new 
station,  under  Dr.  Fisher.  No  one  at  Ruwi  could 
tell  us  the  way,  nor  could  we  get  any  guides.  But 
it  was  thought  to  be  about  a  week's  journey.  So 
when  the  mine  kindly  supplied  me  with  the  eleven 
carriers  I  needed,  they  insisted  that  I  take  food  for 
a  week  along  with  me  and  that  I  see  to  it  that  the 
men  had  a  week's  food  from  Kalene  Hill  to  bring 
them  back  in  safe  and  good  condition.  Moreover, 
as  Mr.  Cookson  had  just  shot  three  hippo,  he 
generously  gave  a  big  chunk  of  the  flesh  to  each 
boy.  Dr.  Massey  supplemented  our  rapidly  di- 
minishing stock  of  medicines,  and  Mr.  Gillespie, 
the  storekeeper,  let  us  have  the  few  things  this 
"last  chance"  warned  us  to  get,  so  we  set  out  on 
the  24th  of  June. 

There  was  a  wagon  road,  twelve  hundred  miles 
in  length,  which  had  been  opened  up  by  Mr.  H.  I. 
Brown  and  Major  Boyd  Cunningham  two  years 


136    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

before  to  transport  loads  from  Benguella  to  Ruwi. 
Several  wagon  loads  of  heavy  machinery,  rails, 
trucks,  battery,  etc.,  had  been  brought  over  this 
road.  But  as  it  had  followed  the  watershed  and 
avoided  rivers  and  swamps,  it  was  much  longer 
than  to  go  by  native  paths.  Moreover,  it  was  so 
overgrown  with  grass  that  walking  on  it  would 
have  been  very  difficult. 

Within  twelve  miles,  after  leaving  Ruwi,  we 
passed  three  copper  mines  of  the  Concessions.  As 
we  neared  the  third  and  last  we  had  to  cross  a 
rather  wide,  shallow  stream,  whose  emerald  bed  of 
copper  malachite  gleamed  beautifully  under  the 
crystal  waters. 

Sixteen  miles  out  we  came  onto  a  wide,  deep 
swamp  for  which  we  were  wholly  unprepared. 
Owing  to  a  late  start,  it  was  now  time  to  camp. 
But  there  was  no  suitable  place  and,  besides,  neither 
we  nor  our  carriers  wanted  to  wade  in  icy  waters 
the  next  morning.  Mrs.  Springer  prepared  to 
wade  if  it  were  necessary,  and,  with  her  eight  boys 
all  around  her,  got  into  the  machilla  while  GifFord 
and  I  waded  ahead.  It  took  nearly  an  hour  to 
cross,  as  it  was  one  of  the  deepest,  foulest  swamps 
of  our  whole  journey.  And  then  when  we  got  to 
the  other  side  we  had  to  travel  nearly  two  miles 
further  to   reach  wood,   so  that  the   sun   had   set 


In  Congo  Territory.  137 

before  we  pitched  camp  and  got  a  fire.  I  had  been 
up  since  early  that  morning,  packing  loads,  dis- 
tributing food,  assigning  loads,  and  dealing  with 
mutinous  carriers,  so  that  I  had  been  almost  ready 
to  drop  from  sheer  weariness  before  we  got  to  the 
swamp.  Then  with  that  wading  in  cold  mud  and 
water  added  and  getting  chilled,  I  soon  went  to 
bed  with  the  first  and  only  fever  all  the  time  we 
were  on  the  trail.  While  at  Broken  Hill  we  had 
been  strongly  advised  by  several  to  take  five  grains 
of  quinine  a  day.  So  at  the  close  of  our  evening 
meal  each  day  we  had  all  religiously  taken  what 
we  called  our  "dessert."  This  dessert  was  a  bitter 
one,  indeed,  but  whether  we  owed  to  it  our  freedom 
from  fever  or  not,  I  am  unable  to  say.  Certainly 
we  crossed  enough  swamps  and  lowlands  to  expect 
fever.  But  that  one  night  was  the  only  time  any 
of  us  whites  had  fever,  though  our  carriers  had 
it  frequently.  On  another  such  journey  I  should 
take  along  sufficient  quinine  to  give  a  regular  dose 
to  each  carrier  daily.  And  not  only  were  we  free 
from  fever  on  the  trail,  but  also  when  we  reached 
the  coast  and  throughout  the  sea  voyage,  and  we 
arrived  home  in  excellent  health,  and  have  not  had 
the  slightest  touch  of  fever  since. 

That    next    morning,    however,    I    still    had    a 
temperature  and  was  sick  enough  to  stay  in  bed, 


138    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

but  felt  we  must  get  on  if  possible.  So  I  dressed 
and  by  8:30  was  on  the  trail.  We  had  expected 
to  reach  the  Government  Post  by  noon  that  day, 
but  when  we  did  reach  it,  found  it  deserted,  and 
all  we  could  learn  from  the  native  left  in  charge 
was  that  a  new  one  had  been  built  further  on  and 
that  we  would  reach  it  late  in  the  afternoon.  With 
this  hope  we  kept  going,  until  we  had  covered 
twenty-one  miles  and  no  sign  of  the  "Boma"*  yet, 
nor  of  water,  either.  The  caravan  stopped  and  we 
all  began  a  search  for  water,  while  GifFord  rode 
ahead  and  found  some  stagnant  water  in  a  vlej 
a  mile  or  so  ahead.  It  was  bad,  but  the  sun  was 
sinking  and  we  had  to  stop  where  we  were. 

So,  in  spite  of  my  fever,  I  had  made  nearly 
twenty-three  miles.  The  morning  had  been  very 
cold  and  I  had  ridden  some  four  miles  in  the 
machilla.  Then  I  tried  the  wheel  in  the  after- 
noon, for  the  sun  was  scorching.  I  had  not  gone 
far  when  I  struck  one  of  the  many  little  stumps  in 
the  path,  took  a  header,  and  practically  finished 
the  machine  by  hopelessly  twisting  the  fork. 

As  the  paths  were  now  getting  worse  and 
worse,  we  were  hardly  able  to  ride  at  all.    Nor  could 

*Note:  The  capltol  of  the  Congo  Free  State  Is  Boma,  mean- 
ing In  Kikongo  a  boa  constrictor.  So  the  name  has  gone  Inland 
and  the  natives  call  nil  government  stations  a  "Boma."  And 
losing  its  original  meaning,  the  word  has  been  passed  on  Into 
Rhodesia  to  mean  any  station  with  white  people  on  It. 


In  Congo  Territory.  139 

we  have  had  much  use  of  the  best  wheel  from  this 
time  on,  while  this  one  had  now  got  its  death  blow. 
And  for  a  few  minutes  I  thought  I  had,  too.  In 
my  weakened  condition  I  thought  I  never  could 
walk  in  that  hot  sun,  but  I  had  to  do  it,  and  when 
I  reached  camp  the  fever  was  gone,  not  to  return. 

As  for  the  Government  Station,  we  had  to  go 
four  miles  the  next  morning  before  we  came  to  it. 
We  had  to  report  to  a  Belgian  who  did  not  under- 
stand English,  and  as  we  did  not  speak  French, 
we  held  our  conversation  in  the  sign  language 
mostly.  He  looked  over  our  papers,  endorsed 
them,  and  signified  that  he  accepted  us  as  proper 
persons.  He  also  served  us  with  tea  and  made  us 
to  understand  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  have  us 
remain  over  the  night.  We  had  hoped  here  to 
get  some  information  about  the  trail  ahead,  or 
at  least  to  secure  a  reliable  guide,  but  in  that  we 
were  disappointed.  We  got  a  guide  for  a  day, 
but  as  he  had  never  heard  of  Kalene  Hill  and  did 
not  know  the  path  to  Nanakandundu,  he  only  got 
us  lost. 

But  the  guide,  whose  clothing  was  a  minimum 
amount,  had  some  notions  in  his  head  and  began 
taking  us  through  kraals,  out  of  the  direct  course, 
for  no  other  purpose  that  we  could  see  than  to 
show  us  off  to  his  friends.    I  then  called  him  to  me 


140    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

and,  pointing  due  southwest,  sought  to  impress 
upon  him  that  I  wanted  to  go  in  that  direction 
and  no  other.  He  led  us  that  way  for  awhile,  but 
ere  long  turned  north  and  soon  landed  at  a  kraal 
hidden  in  thick  bush.  The  chief  rushed  out,  gun 
in  hand,  thinking  that  the  "Bulamatadi,"*  or  the 
slave  raiders,  were  upon  him,  and  ready  to  fight 
in  either  case. 

When  we  made  the  chief  and  his  armed  men 
understand  that  we  were  harmless  "Nglezi,"  or 
English,  their  excitement  abated  and  they  told  us 
we  were  clear  off  the  Nyakatoro  trail.  So  I  paid 
off  the  other  fellow  and  sent  him  back.  Even  had 
he  known  the  trail,  his  presence  as  representing 
Bulamatadi  was  a  source  of  danger. 

I  then  got  the  chief  to  put  us  on  the  right 
trail.  We  had  to  retrace  our  steps  about  a  half 
mile,  and  then  turn  abruptly,  and  descend  a  high, 
steep  bank  to  the  Rufupa  River,  which  was  deep 
and  fairly  wide.  A  rude  bridge  had  been  made  by 
cutting  large  trees  on  either  side  and  letting  their 
branches  interlace  mid-stream.  It  was  not  an  easy 
one  to  cross,  but  quite  a  common  type  of  bridge 
during  the  next  five  hundred  miles  where  a  river 
was  too  deep  for  fording. 

*Thls  term,  which  means  Breaker-of-Rocks,  was  first  given 
by  the  natives  of  the  lower  Congo  to  Btanley  who  was  blasting 
a  road.  It  is  now  extended  all  over  the  State  to  designate  any 
and  all  of  King  Leopold's  offlciala. 


In  Congo  Territory.  141 

It  took  quite  a  while  for  all  our  men  to  cross 
and  I  did  not  dare  leave  any  of  them  behind. 
While  we  were  waiting  on  the  bank  a  woman  came 
down  in  a  state  of  great  excitement,  shrieking  and 
gesticulating  in  a  most  alarming  manner.  I  did  not 
know  what  new  trouble  might  be  in  store  for  us. 
The  chief  listened  and  at  first  assumed  an  expres- 
sion of  tragic  horror,  when  shortly  he  clapped  his 
hands  softly  over  his  mouth  and  began  to  laugh. 
I  was  relieved  at  that,  and,  when  some  of  our 
carriers  began  to  understand,  they  laughed.  Only 
the  woman  did  not  seem  to  see  the  joke  of  it.  I 
inquired  into  it  and  learned  that  this  woman  and 
the  others  of  the  kraal  had  been  working  in  their 
gardens  when  a  lion  had  boldly  made  a  charge  and 
carried  one  of  them  off  and  this  one  had  run  to 
notify  the  men.  But  it  was  only  a  woman  who 
was  taken.  It  was  rather  a  joke  on  her  husband 
to  thus  lose  one  of  his  wives,  but  so  cheaply  is 
human  life,  and  especially  woman  life,  held,  that 
it  meant  no  more  to  most  of  them  than  the  news 
that  a  goat  had  been  eaten.  Nor  was  there  any 
move  toward  a  possible  rescue,  although  the  woman 
was  evidently  urging  it.  The  chief  proceeded  with 
us  for  another  two  or  three  miles,  until  we  came 
to  the  right  trail  and  on  to  the  next  chief,  to  whom 
he  introduced  us   and  probably   vouched   for   our 


142    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

character.  I  gave  him  two  yards  of  cloth  and  a 
bit  of  salt  for  his  services,  whereupon  he  pleaded 
that  he  was  a  big  chief  and  ought  to  have  more,  so 
I  gave  him  a  little  more  salt  and  he  went  back 
happy. 

The  chief  here  was  very  friendly  and  sold  us 
plenty  of  sweet  potatoes.  The  next  morning  he 
set  out  with  us,  accompanied  by  one  of  his  men, 
both  armed  with  old  flintlock,  muzzle-loading 
blunderbusses,  which  were  highly  ornamented  with 
brass-headed  tacks  and  highly  valued  by  the  na- 
tives. Loaded  with  flint  stones  or  iron  slag,  these 
guns  could  do  a  bit  of  damage. 

In  Rhodesia  natives  are  not  allowed  to  own  a 
gun.  And  the  rule  is  a  good  one.  But  in  the 
Congo  State  and  in  the  Portuguese  territory,  on  to 
the  end  of  the  trip,  we  seldom  met  a  man  un- 
armed, and  in  the  villages  each  man's  gun  was 
within  handy  reach,  leaning  up  against  the  huts 
or  stockades.  They  are  ineff^ective  beyond  a  hun- 
dred yards,  but  even  so  by  them  the  game  of  the 
country — that  is,  the  eatable  animals — had  been 
practically  exterminated.  Now  and  then  I  saw 
a  buck  hide  drying  on  the  ground  at  the  kraals, 
and  I  noted  in  every  case  it  had  two  ragged  holes 
made  by  these  home-made  bullets. 

We  were  far  off  the  main  trail  between  Ruwi 


In  Congo  Territory.  143 

and  Nanakandundu,  so  for  miles  we  were  taken 
over  trails  so  dim  that  only  the  men  who  knew 
them  of  old  could  have  followed  them.  The 
country  was  rugged,  and  varied,  and  beautiful. 
Now  we  went  for  miles  in  a  park-like  forest,  un- 
dulating, seamed  with  deep  ravines,  some  dry  and 
others  having  cold  mountain  streams  coursing  at 
the  bottom,  the  banks  lined  with  tall  trees,  graceful 
vines  and  delicate  ferns  in  luxurious  profusion. 
Now  we  crossed  broad  stretches  of  perfectly  flat 
vlej,  where  the  sun  beat  upon  us  pitilessly,  or  soft, 
spongy  land  which  only  needed  a  rain  or  two  to 
turn  it  into  soft  bog. 

These  men  took  us  on  to  the  next  kraal,  which 
was  also  hidden  away  and  heavily  stockaded.  We 
could  only  get  guides  from  one  kraal  to  the  next, 
as  we  were  held  in  suspicion  until  it  was  found 
out  that  we  were  "English." 

We  passed  the  abandoned  sites  of  several  large 
kraals,  the  heavy  stockades  of  which  showed  that 
until  recently  the  natives  had  been  much  more 
insecure  than  at  present,  as  the  British  in  Rhodesia, 
and  Gray's  men,  in  the  last  two  years  had  been 
making  it  pretty  hot  for  the  slavers.  Several  slave 
caravans  had  been  captured,  the  slaves  freed,  and 
the  trading  goods,  with  which  to  buy  more,  burned. 


144    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

The  third  day  out  from  Ruwi  we  nearly  boxed 
the  compass.  No  one  seemed  to  know  the  trail 
to  Nyakatoro,  but  each  guide  would  take  us  to 
some  kraal  farther  on,  until  we  were  almost  in  de- 
spair. But  that  evening  we  found  a  man  who  said 
he  knew  "Totola"  (Doctor  Fisher).  Not  knowing 
the  Doctor's  native  name,  we  had  about  an  hour's 
discussion  before  I  could  be  sure  I  was  getting  a 
guide  who  knew  where  I  wanted  to  go. 

This  man,  Nyamba,  however,  agreed  to  go 
with  us  two  days  and  so  set  forth  the  next  morning. 
From  his  military  bearing,  his  effusive  politeness, 
and  rascally  countenance,  I  am  sure  he  had  served 
as  a  soldier  under  the  Portuguese  and  probably 
had  had  his  own  part  in  many  a  slave  raid.  He 
took  his  small  son  with  him  to  carry  his  spear, 
and  the  second  day  he  was  accompanied  by  two 
other  armed  men. 

We  had  a  hot  two  or  three  miles  in  the  Lubudi 
Valley  that  day.  In  the  rainy  season  I  should 
judge  the  river  would  be  a  mile  to  a  mile  and  a 
half  wide,  for  more  than  that  was  covered  with 
reeds  and  rushes  growing  to  the  height  of  ten  to 
fifteen  feet.  As  we  made  our  way  through  them, 
along  the  low,  narrow  trail,  it  was  like  being  in  a 
steam  bath.  In  the  center  lay  the  river,  not  very 
wide,  but  deep,  over  which  we  had  to  cross  on  a 


In  Congo  Territory.  145 

single  log.  I  feared  for  our  loads  and  waited 
behind  until  I  saw  the  last  one  safely  over. 

We  stopped  for  lunch  at  the  kraal  of  Kashaka. 
Imagine  our  relief  when  a  party  of  natives  came 
up  to  me  and  handed  me  a  letter  to  show  where 
they  were  going  and  I  found  they  were  from  Dr. 
Fisher,  bound  for  Nkoni  Hill,  via  Ruwi.  From 
them  I  learned  the  names  of  the  kraals  at  which 
we  would  be  likely  to  stop  noons  and  nights,  and 
my  guides  also  learned  the  trail  we  wished  to  follow. 
This  was  a  satisfaction  after  four  days  of  wan- 
dering in  all  directions  of  the  compass.  Among 
these  boys  was  one  who  had  been  sent  from  Ruwi 
to  Kalene  a  year  previously.  He  had  eaten  some 
of  the  green  manioc  root,  the  flour  of  which  is 
the  chief  sustenance  of  the  country,  and  had  nearly 
died  in  consequence.  He  had  been  under  the 
doctor's  care  for  a  year  and  was  now  just  re- 
turning. 

On  leaving  Ruwi  we  traveled  three  or  four 
days  among  the  Baluba  and  now  were  among  the 
Balunda.  We  noticed  that  the  further  we  ad- 
vanced toward  the  west  coast  the  more  evidence 
there  was  of  superstition  among  the  natives.  This 
is  evidenced  by  the  charms  upon  their  persons  and 
about  their  kraals.  As  we  went  along,  we  noted 
charms  for  the  keeping  away  of  evil  spirits  over 
10 


146    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

the  entrance  to  every  kraal  and  usually  at  the 
forks  of  roads.  Along  the  path  we  would  see  fre- 
quent little  shrines,  in  which  could  be  seen  old 
native  pots  containing  dirt.  Whether  they  had 
ever  held  food  or  beer,  I  can  not  say.  But  by 
the  springs  were  little  shrines  with  wooden  troughs, 
which  the  people  kept  filled  with  water. 

These  Lunda  people  were  an  offshoot  of  the 
great  Lunda  tribe,  which  is  located  for  hundreds 
of  square  miles  on  either  side  of  the  Kassai  River. 
In  Livingstone's  day  Mwata  Yambo  was  the  big 
chief.  He  was  very  friendly  to  the  white  man 
and  was  ready  to  send  out  an  expedition  against 
the  Bachiokwe,  to  punish  them  for  the  annoyance 
they  had  given  to  Livingstone.  The  best  informa- 
tion I  could  get  was  that  there  are  now  two  sons 
of  Mwata  Yambo  who  rule  in  his  place. 

We  found  all  these  people  very  timid,  but 
growing  milder  in  character  as  we  approached  the 
Rhodesian  border.  On  sight  of  us  an  alarm  was 
usually  given,  and  the  men,  women,  and  children 
could  be  seen  fleeing  for  their  lives  into  the  thick 
underbrush  which  surrounded  each  kraal. 

When  Nyamba  shouted  to  them  and  reassured 
them  in  their  own  tongue,  they  would  return, 
whereupon  Nyamba  chafed  them  for  running 
away  from  such  harmless  individuals  as  ourselves. 


In  Congo  Territory.  147 

And  then  the  women  and  children  would  set  up  a 
cry,  which  was  not  altogether  unmusical,  although 
a  doleful  minor,  and  they  kept  up  this  singing  as 
long  as  we  were  in  sight. 

The  night  at  Mwana  Uta's  kraal  was  mem- 
orable for  two  reasons.  That  evening  there  was 
the  first  and  only  real  row  between  our  carriers. 
This  was  remarkable,  as  from  the  very  first  I 
had  as  many  as  five  or  six  tribes  represented. 
Among  these  were  six  Awemba  and  the  eight 
Angoni.  From  time  away  back  there  had  been 
bad  blood  between  these  tribes  and  the  Angoni  had 
simply  let  the  others  alone  on  this  trip.  But  the 
Awemba  were  quarrelsome  and  had  given  me 
trouble  all  the  time  from  our  very  start  at  Broken 
Hill. 

This  evening  they  began  to  hunt  trouble  in 
the  Angoni  camp,  but  the  Angoni  refused  to  pay 
any  attention  to  them  until,  in  an  exasperation  of 
temper,  a  Muwemba  made  a  charge.  Then  the 
fighting  Angoni  rose  to  the  occasion  and  in  almost 
less  time  than  it  takes  to  tell  it,  the  Awemba  beat 
a  retreat,  worsted  and  bleeding.  Three  of  them 
were  considerably  bruised,  with  cuts  on  their  shins, 
backs,  and  heads.  They  came  to  me  breathing  out 
slaughter  against  the  Angoni  and  vowing  they 
would  not  travel  with  them  another  day;  no,  not 
one. 


148    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

I  bound  up  their  wounds  and  assured  them 
they  would  be  all  right  in  the  morning.  On  in- 
vestigation I  learned  that  a  very  cheeky  Wemba 
youth  had  only  got  his  just  deserts,  and  so  dropped 
the  matter. 

Another  thing  about  the  camp  was  the  cold. 
We  had  had  the  thermometer  ranging  from  32  to 
50  degrees  at  night  ever  since  we  left  Broken  Hill. 
None  of  the  nights  was  warm,  but  this  night  of 
June  28th  we  could  hardly  sleep  for  the  cold.  In 
the  morning  we  found  nearly  a  half  inch  of  ice 
in  all  the  water  utensils,  and  the  thermometer  reg- 
istered 23  degrees  Fahrenheit. 

As  we  ached  with  the  cold  these  nights,  and 
shivered  around  the  fire  mornings  and  for  the 
first  hour  on  the  trail,  we  were  wont  to  grimly 
recall  the  popular  idea  in  England  and  America 
that  the  heat  in  Africa  is  everywhere  and  at  all 
times  all  but  unendurable.  However,  though  the 
evenings,  nights,  and  mornings  were  so  very  cold, 
the  mid-day  sun  was  fierce  whenever  our  path  lay 
outside  the  shady  forest. 

The  night  had  also  served  to  cool  off  the  tem- 
pers of  the  combatants,  who  shouldered  their  loads 
next  morning  without  a  word. 

Just  after  mid-day  we  passed  by  an  ant  hill 
where  two  natives  were  engaged  in  smelting  iron 


In  Congo  Territory.  149 

ore,  which  is  general  in  the  country.  The  clay 
of  the  ant  hill  is  particularly  hard.  This  had 
been  worked  with  water,  molded,  and  evidently  sun- 
dried.  The  furnace  was  circular  in  shape,  char- 
coal had  been  made  for  fuel,  and  two  goat  skins 
were  used  for  bellows.  Whether  the  iron  was  placed 
in  crucibles  or  on  the  charcoal,  I  can  not  say,  but 
am  inclined  to  think  the  latter.  The  natives 
throughout  Africa  are  more  or  less  acquainted 
with  the  processes  of  smelting  and  working  iron  ore. 

We  were  now  approaching  the  water-shed 
again.  The  country  was  mostly  flat  or  undulat- 
ing and  marked  by  frequent  streams  and  spongy 
vlejs.  Some  of  the  streams  had  worn  out  deep 
channels  for  themselves,  but  there  was  less  of  this 
as  we  approached  the  actual  divide. 

We  were  traveling  through  an  immense  tract 
of  unrelieved  heathenism.  Behind  us,  to  the  east, 
there  was  no  mission  station  for  nearly  four  hun- 
dred miles.  To  the  southwest  of  us  were  two  mis- 
sions, ninet}^  miles  apart,  but  the  next  beyond  them 
was  250  miles  away,  at  Muchiko,  after  which 
another  break  of  250  miles  to  the  group  of  mis- 
sions around  Bihe.  To  the  south,  some  three 
hundred  miles  away,  was  a  little  group  of  mis- 
sions surrounded  by  an  immense  field  totally  un- 
touched. 


150    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

This  water-shed  is  the  southern  boundary  of 
a  strip  of  country  six  hundred  miles  in  width, 
which,  beginning  at  Kanshanshi  and  extending 
one  thousand  miles  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  has  not 
a  single  mission  or  missionary  except  those  of  our 
own  church  in  Angola,  while  all  the  thickly  pop- 
ulated sections  of  that  interior  are  still  unrelieved 
heathenism. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
TO  THE  KASSAI. 

On  the  morning  of  July  1st  we  crossed  the 
wagon  road  on  the  divide  and  soon  came  into 
Northwestern  Rhodesia  again.  Our  carriers  were 
dehghted  to  be  back  again  in  British  territory, 
and  we  shared  their  sense  of  rehef  and  security. 
For,  whatever  its  imperfections,  British  rule  is  far 
superior  to  any  other  in  all  Africa. 

We  soon  crossed  the  Zambesi,  only  twenty  miles 
from  its  source.  It  seemed  a  pity  that  our  lim- 
ited time  prevented  our  visiting  the  source  itself, 
but  "the  King's  business  required  haste,"  and  we 
were  not  out  on  a  pleasure  trip.  The  river  at 
this  point  was  a  vigorous,  sparkling  stream  about 
twenty-five  feet  wide,  and  we  crossed  it  on  poles 
laid  across  for  a  bridge. 

We  were  a  hard-looking  party,  indeed.  We 
had  had  no  opportunity  for  having  any  washing 
done  since  leaving  Ruwi,  and  for  a  good  share  of 
the  time  we  had  to  walk  through  burnt  or  burning 
veld.      Our  clothes  were  also  beginning  to  show 

151 


152    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

decided  signs  of  wear  after  six  weeks'  steady 
trekking.  Thorn  trees  are  everywhere  in  Africa 
and  had  left  their  marks  on  us.  My  trousers  had 
good-sized  patches  on  the  knees,  taken  from  the 
legs  of  another  pair.  GifFord  had  had  to  cut  off 
about  ten  inches  of  frayed  and  torn  ends  from 
his  pant  legs,  which  gave  him  the  style  known  as 
"Congo  pants,"  reaching  just  to  the  knees;  while 
Mrs.  Springer's  short  khaki  walking  skirt  was 
fringed,  like  an  Indian's,  with  rags. 

At  Kalene  Hill  we  were  heartily  welcomed  by 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fisher,  their  niece,  Miss  Darling,  and 
Miss  Ing,  a  trained  nurse.  There  were  also  two 
white  children  on  the  station,  two-year-old  Charlie 
Fisher,  and  the  six-year-old  daughter  of  the 
Schindlers,  whose  station  is  ninety  miles  away. 

Kalene  Hill  is  quite  high,  overlooking  a  vast 
area  of  flat,  poorly  drained  country,  which  is  very 
unhealthful  on  that  account.  So  this  site  was 
chosen  primarily  for  a  sanatorium  for  the  workers 
in  the  Arnot  Mission.  It  is  only  about  fifteen  miles 
from  the  Portuguese  border  to  the  west  of  them. 

Only  the  previous  October  near  here  the  British 
had  caught  and  convicted  three  Portuguese  of 
selling  gunpowder  in  Rhodesia,  and  of  being  en- 
gaged in  the  slave  traffic.  It  was  not  very  far 
from  here  that,  two  j^ears  before,  a  man  named 


To  THE  Kassai.  153 

Bracken  had  overtaken  a  slave  caravan,  had  freed 
the  slaves,  and  burned  all  of  the  trading  goods 
connected  with  it,  while  the  offending  Portuguese 
fled,  and  hid  in  a  little  cave  close  to  the  present 
mission  site,  and  remained  there  until  he  could 
make  his  escape.  And  there  will  be  more  lively 
times  yet  ere  this  hydra-headed  monster,  the  slave 
traffic,  is  utterly  dispatched. 

Mr.  Bracken  was  an  expert  hunter.  He  had 
killed  nine  leopards.  One  day  he  fired  on  a  tenth, 
but  only  wounded  and  infuriated  the  animal,  so 
that  it  sprang  on  him,  mauling  him  fearfully.  He 
got  free  somehow  and  jumped  into  a  river  nearby, 
where  he  had  to  stay,  in  the  meantime  being 
tantalized  by  the  beast,  until  his  friends  found  him 
and  killed  the  leopard.  They  took  him  to  the 
Broken  Hill  Hospital  as  quickly  as  possible,  but 
he  died  from  the  wounds  and  the  shock,  and  was 
the  first  white  man  to  be  interred  in  the  little 
cemetery  at  Broken  Hill. 

While  at  Kalene  Hill  we  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  Mr.  Woest,  who  had  just  passed  there 
with  a  drove  of  one  thousand  head  of  cattle.  Dr. 
Fisher  sent  word  to  jNlr.  Woest  that  we  had  just 
arrived  from  Ruwi  and  he  rode  back  to  see  us. 
He  and  his  partner  were  originally  from  Cape 
Colony,     Some  years  ago  they  had  come  up  into 


154    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Northwestern  Rhodesia,  bought  cattle  of  the 
Barotse,  and  had  been  doing  a  big  trading  and 
transport  business.  With  the  coming  of  the  rail- 
way much  of  their  business  at  Kalomo  had  died 
down.  There  was  also  a  demand  for  transport 
from  Benguella  to  the  Tanganyika  Concessions,  so 
they  entered  into  a  contract  with  the  company  and 
had  set  forth  in  December,  1906.  In  order  to 
reach  the  section  of  the  country  nearest  to  Kan- 
shanshi  and  yet  west  of  the  fly  country,  they  had 
had  to  make  a  wide  detour  of  about  nine  hundred 
miles  in  order  to  avoid  all  sections  where  they  would 
meet  the  tsetse  fly.  The  bringing  of  one  thousand 
head  of  cattle,  most  of  them  milch  animals,  and  nine 
wagons  through  unbroken  country  was  a  difficult 
and  heroic  undertaking.  At  Nankandundu  they 
had  parted  company,  Mr.  King  taking  seven 
wagons  to  the  coast,  for  loads  bound  for  Ruwi,  and 
Mr.  Woest  proceeding  with  two  wagons  and  the 
main  herd  to  locate  in  Northwestern  Rhodesia,  as 
near  to  Kanshanshi  as  the  fly  would  allow.  In  over 
seven  months'  trekking  through  the  unknown  they 
had  lost  but  about  sixty  animals  from  lions  and 
sickness,  most  of  these  being  young. 

We  had  a  most  enjoyable  visit  at  Kalene,  and 
left  there  the  Fourth  of  July  much  refreshed.  At 
first  we  had  been  rather  depressed  by   the   news 


To  THE  Kassai.  155 

given  us  of  the  Bachiokwe  country,  through  which 
we  felt  we  ought  to  pass.  Our  friends  considered 
that  the  undertaking  was  most  hazardous,  if  not 
utterly  impossible.  The  Schindlers  had  come 
through  there  once  from  Malange  at  a  time  when 
war  prevented  their  coming  by  the  regular  caravan 
route  from  Benguella,  but  as  their  carriers  wanted 
to  get  to  their  own  homes  in  the  interior,  they 
brought  the  party  through.  It  was  considered 
almost  a  certainty  that  if  we  made  the  attempt  to 
go  through,  our  carriers  would  desert  us  and  we 
would  all  run  the  risk  of  being  pillaged  and  killed. 
In  fact,  we  were  strongly  advised  to  keep  to  the 
old  slave-route  to  Bihe,  which  is  now  perfectly 
safe,  and  to  let  the  Bachiokwe  alone.  Under  the 
same  circumstances  we  should  give  the  same  advice. 
It  was  the  most  reasonable  thing  to  do.  Neverthe- 
less we  felt  more  than  ever,  after  our  evening 
prayers  that  night,  that  we  should  go  through  the 
Bachiokwe  country  and  come  out,  we  and  our 
carriers,  in  safety. 

As  I  had  brought  eleven  men  from  Ruwi,  I 
sent  them  back,  and  now  found  myself  in  need  of 
other  carriers.  The  doctor  had  sent  out  to  the 
nearest  village  for  them,  but  at  nine  o'clock  that 
morning  I  was  still  four  men  short.     This  delay 


156    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

was  very  perplexing,  but  was  most  unexpectedly 
solved.  Suddenly  we  saw  the  familiar  face  of  a 
white  man  whom  we  had  left  at  Broken  Hill,  a 
young  man  by  the  name  of  Kendall,  The  pleas- 
ure of  meeting  was  mutual.  He  had  left  Broken 
Hill  two  weeks  after  us  and  had  come  by  the  short- 
est and  most  direct  route,  right  through  the  heart 
of  the  Wakaonda  country.  He  and  two  other 
white  men  were  taking  120  natives  over  to  work  on 
the  Benguella  Railway. 

He  informed  me  that  he  was  a  day's  march  in 
advance  of  his  party  and  that  they  were  going  so 
light  they  would  soon  overtake  us  on  the  trail. 
So  I  left  four  loads  for  them  to  take  on  to  Nana- 
kandundu,  and  we  left. 

The  next  day  at  noon  Mr.  Kendall  again  over- 
took us  and  went  with  us  for  a  few  miles.  He 
ate  lunch  with  us  and  asked  all  about  our  route. 
We  told  him  of  our  intention  of  going  through 
that  Bachiokwe  country,  and  he  said,  "I  do  n't 
know  but  what  I  '11  go  through  to  Angola  with 
you."  As  this  involved  many  questions,  we  made 
it  a  serious  matter  of  pra^^er  for  the  next  few  days. 

Once  more  we  crossed  the  Zambesi,  now  about 
a  hundred  miles  from  the  source.  Here  it  was  a 
broad,  beautiful  river,  over  which  we  were  ferried 
in  canoes.     And  from  now  on,  for  several  hundred 


To  THE  Kassai.  157 

miles,  we  had  practically  flat,  swampy  or  sandy 
country  all  the  way. 

As  we  stopped  for  lunch  the  day  we  reached 
Nanakandundu,  we  saw  a  sight  never  to  be  forgot- 
ten. There  was  no  running  water  on  that  vlej, 
but  water  could  be  found  only  a  few  inches  from 
the  surface  almost  anywhere.  So  the  vlej  was 
dotted  with  numerous  holes  from  one  to  two  feet 
deep,  into  which  the  water  seeped  and  from  which 
the  kraal  was  supplied. 

As  we  sat  there,  under  the  scanty  shade  of  a 
scrubby  tree,  an  old  woman  came  down  with  a  small 
jar  to  get  water.  She  was  blind  and  a  Avalking 
skeleton,  her  only  clothing  being  an  infinitesimal 
scrid  of  cloth  worn  in  front.  It  was  the  most  pain- 
ful sight  to  see  that  poor  old  soul  groping  her  way 
to  get  the  needed  drop  of  water  with  which  to  cook 
her  own  scanty  meal,  her  emaciated  condition  be- 
ing due,  no  doubt,  to  neglect  and  starvation.  But 
what  most  impressed  me  was  that  her  miserable 
condition  elicited  not  one  word  of  sympathy  from 
the  natives,  but  rather  ridicule.  The  spirit  that 
old  people  have  no  right  to  live  is  heathen  to  the 
core  and  flourishes  its  best  on  heathen  soil. 

During  the  week  Kendall's  party  and  ours  had 
several  times  passed  and  repassed  each  other,  so  we 
arrived  at  Mr.  Schindler's  mission  station  on  the 


158    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

same  day.  And  here  we  made  the  final  arrange- 
ments to  go  from  there  on  together.  I  was  to  have 
a  certain  number  of  his  boys  to  carry  for  me.  I 
wanted  sixteen,  but  when  we  came  to  start  some  of 
his  had  bolted  and  joined  the  main  party,  and  I 
was  only  able  to  get  ten  for  myself,  while  he  had 
to  have  seven  for  himself.  The  whole  caravan 
which  left  Nanakandundu  was  but  tliirty. 

On  all  our  journey  we  had  an  unusually  small 
caravan.  There  were  three  whites  of  us,  and  eight 
of  the  men  belonged  to  Mrs.  Springer's  machilla, 
and  was  only  half  a  team  at  that.  We  were  told 
in  the  Concessions  that  a  solitary  prospector  go- 
ing out  for  only  a  couple  of  weeks  would  take 
along  fort}^  or  fifty  carriers.  Had  I  been  going 
alone,  I  could  have  done  with  twenty,  but  each 
white  person  adds  to  the  amount  of  luggage  and 
food  supplies  needed  on  the  way. 

*  Our  caravan  was  now  too  small  by  four  men 
and  caused  no  little  inconvenience  for  over  a  week, 
for  we  had  to  try  and  get  other  carriers  along  the 
road,  and  with  little  success. 

On  arriving  at  Kavungu  we  were  met  by  Mr. 
Arnot,  who  was  just  setting  out  to  keep  an  engage- 
ment for  Bible  reading  with  some  Portuguese 
traders.  Through  the  influence  of  the  missionaries 
and  the  reading  of  the  Bible  one  of  these  traders 


To  THE  Kassai.  159 

had  been  converted,  and  he  had  been  interesting 
the  two  or  three  other  traders  thereabouts.  These 
men  had  never  had  the  Scriptures  before,  and  to 
them  they  were  a  mine  of  wonders. 

These  missions  were  started  by  Mr.  Arnot.  He 
was  a  schoolmate  of  Livingstone's  children  in  Scot- 
land. Through  them  he  became  keenly  interested 
in  Africa,  and  especially  in  the  Katanga  country 
mentioned  in  Livingstone's  letters.  He  felt  called 
to  devote  his  life  to  opening  up  that  section  to  the 
Gospel. 

In  1881  he  sailed  for  Africa.  He  landed  at 
Port  Elizabeth  and  tried  to  get  to  the  Katanga 
country  that  way,  but  only  reached  Basutoland, 
where  King  Lewanika  absolutely  refused  to  let  him 
go  farther  north  "to  teach  his  dogs." 

However,  he  went  northwest  to  Benguella,  on 
the  west  coast,  and  from  there  made  his  way  east- 
ward through  Bihe  and  Nanakandundu  to  Nkoni 
Hill.  It  took  him  just  three  years  from  the  time 
he  left  England  to  arrive  at  his  destined  point.  He 
remained  in  the  Garenganze  country  a  year,  and 
then  returned  to  Benguella  to  meet  reinforcements, 
and  while  there  he  heard  that  Bishop  Taylor  and 
his  party  had  landed  at  Loanda,  250  miles  north, 
to  start  a  chain  of  missions  inland  from  that  point. 


160    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

After  about  twenty  years  on  the  field,  during 
which  time  several  excellent  stations  had  been 
opened  and  established,  he  was,  while  home  in  Eng- 
land, chosen  to  succeed  George  Miiller  at  his  death. 
However,  he  did  not  feel  himself  called  to  that  par- 
ticular work  and  had  returned  to  Africa  to  visit 
the  stations  he  had  founded.  Recent  news  states 
that,  on  account  of  health,  he  had  to  leave  Central 
Africa  again  at  the  close  of  1907. 

Our  stay  at  this  mission  was  much  too  short, 
but  necessarily  so.  We  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Schindler  to  the  full.  They  spared 
no  pains  to  do  all  in  their  power  for  us,  as  indeed 
they  do  for  all  the  way-worn  travelers  who  come 
to  that  far-inland  post. 

There  la^'^  ahead  of  us  some  six  hundred  miles 
of  wild  country  and  savage  peoples,  with  no  other 
white  station  of  any  kind  until  we  should  reach 
Malange.  The  Schindlers  had  once  come  through 
that  way,  with  no  little  danger  to  themselves,  but 
they  agreed  with  us  that  if  God  had  called  us  to 
go  He  would  take  us  through  in  safety. 

We  left  this  very  last  outpost  of  friends  on 
July  12th.  Mr.  Arnot  went  a  little  way  with  us, 
and  then,  after  commending  us  to  the  care  and  pro- 
tection of  our  Heavenly  Father,  went  back,  and  we 
turned  our  faces  westward  again. 


To  THE  Kassai.  161 

Our  four  Valovale  secured  at  the  mission  were 
to  act  as  guides  the  five  days  they  were  with  us. 
Their  idea  of  traveling  is  to  make  ten  miles  a  day, 
or  less,  and  then  stop.  So  the  second  day  they 
assured  us  that  we  would  have  to  stop  at  a  certain 
kraal,  as  there  was  no  water  ahead.  Now,  our  time 
was  precious,  our  provisions  few,  and  it  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  we  should  average  close  on  to 
twenty  miles  a  day  every  day  except  Sunday.  So 
we  positively  refused  to  stop  at  near  noon,  and  our 
other  carriers  laughed  derisively  at  the  tale  of  no 
water  ahead.  It  is  one  of  the  most  threadbare  ex- 
cuses of  guides  along  the  way. 

So  we  went  on  and,  two  miles  farther,  came 
to  one  of  the  nastiest  bogs  we  had  to  cross  on  the 
whole  journey.  Our  carriers  had  their  jokes  on 
the  Valovale,  and  we  joined  in,  but  we  realized  that 
if  we  had  been  obliged  to  depend  on  Valovale  men 
alone  it  would  have  meant  serious  business.  In 
fact,  I  doubt  if  we  could  have  got  them  through 
at  all. 

I  could  not  trust  these  men  at  all,  and  from 
this  time  on  I  had  to  stay  right  at  the  head  of  the 
caravan,  with  a  compass  constantly  at  hand,  and 
choose  the  paths  even  when  I  had  guides.  None 
of  them  could  be  trusted  wholly.  The  caravan 
had  to  be  entirely  reorganized.  I  had  to  have  my 
11 


162    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

faithful  Angoni  Capitao  with  me  at  the  head  of 
the  caravan,  and  another  trusty  man  to  bring  up 
the  rear.  It  was  no  easy  task,  and  grew  increas- 
ingly^ difficult  as  the  days  went  by,  to  get  informa- 
tion and  food  from  the  villages  through  which 
we  passed.  A  map  of  Mr.  Constable's,  which  was 
given  me  at  Kambove,  was  helpful  for  a  couple  of 
weeks  in  securing  information. 

The  country  was  now  as  flat  as  a  pancake  and 
either  deep  sand  or  deep  swamp.  At  Sambasamba's 
kraal  we  found  the  chief  holding  court,  having  a 
woman  on  trial.  This  was  the  fourth  day  for  our 
Valovale  men,  but  as  they  had  only  intended  mak- 
ing ten  miles  a  day  they  were  sullen  and  stubborn, 
insisting  that  they  did  not  know  the  way  any  far- 
ther and  should  be  paid  off  and  allowed  to  return. 

I  told  them  that  the  understanding  had  been 
that  they  were  to  cross  the  Lutemwa  River  with 
us,  and  across  the  Lutemwa  they  should  go.  But 
we  needed  a  guide  to  take  us  through  the  bad 
swamps,  of  which  we  were  having  three  or  more  a 
day.  So  I  asked  Sambasamba  to  give  me  one. 
He  ordered  a  young  man  to  go  with  us,  but  the 
youth  flatly  refused  to  go.  The  other  head  men, 
wishing  to  be  rid  of  us  and  go  on  with  the  trial, 
joined  the  chief,  but  it  was  nearly  an  hour  before 
we  could,  all  of  us  combined,  get  the  youth  started, 
and  even  then  he  was  not  in  good  humor. 


To  THE  Kassai.  163 

This  was  the  first  time  I  had  ever  seen  such 
disregard  for  the  word  of  a  chief.  Usually  a 
young  man,  when  told  to  do  a  thing  by  his  chief, 
will  obey  promptly.  But  all  along  here  we  found 
this  same  spirit  of  surly  disregard  of  tribal 
authority. 

While  waiting  for  the  guide  we  found  some 
excellent  specimens  of  native  decoration  on  the  wall 
of  a  hut  and  took  a  photograph  of  them.  We  had 
left  the  round  huts  of  Central  Africa,  and  found 
the  square  ones  which  prevail  toward  the  west  coast. 
Although  we  had  this  guide,  we  got  on  the  wrong 
trail,  and  when  we  had  gone  into  the  swamp  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  the  natives  from  the  nearest 
kraal  shouted  out  that  by  that  route  we  could  never 
get  over,  as  the  water  was  too  deep  at  the  river. 
This  made  long  delays.  I  went  back  to  investi- 
gate the  meaning  of  the  shouting,  and  had  to  call 
them  all  back  and  cross  the  river  by  another  path. 
We  had  about  two  miles  of  wading  in  foul  mud 
and  swamp  that  day.  And  although  we  had  sev- 
eral swamps  and  marshj'  places  ahead  of  us,  yet 
the  badly  swampy  country  which  we  had  had  al- 
most from  the  last  crossing  of  the  Zambesi  was 
over,  and  we  were  now  to  have  sand  instead  for 
steady  traveling. 

For  a  day  or  two  we  had  also  been  interested 


1G4    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

in  the  native  graveyards  all  along  the  trail.  Each 
grave  was  surrounded  by  a  roofed-over  fence  and 
decorated  with  white  cloth  flags  tied  on  poles  in 
the  center.  These  fences  are  not  very  secure,  and 
we  saw  one  place  where  the  voracious  hyena  had 
dug  down  to  the  body  to  have  a  horrible  feast. 

The  personal  appearance  of  the  natives,  their 
villages,  their  habits,  their  customs  and  country, 
was  diff^erent  in  every  way  from  those  of  any  part 
of  Rhodesia.  For  looseness  of  morals  the  Valo- 
vale  are  hard  to  excel.  We  were  told  that  many 
of  the  men  encourage  their  wives  to  immorality. 
If  a  caravan  comes  in  their  vicinity  they  will  send 
their  wives  out  to  it,  and  then  come  in  angrily  de- 
manding heavy  fines  off  the  victims.  And  such 
loose  lives  mean  that  the  whole  moral  nature  of 
the  tribe  is  one  of  the  lowest.  Lying,  thieving, 
slave-dealing,  and  all  other  forms  of  dishonesty 
prevail  among  them.  Physically  thej'  are  large 
and  well  built,  but  the  women  are  not  prolific  as 
in  most  of  the  tribes,  and  the  absence  of  little  chil- 
dren in  the  villages  was  notable. 

When  the  slave  trade  is  finally  killed,  as  it  is 
bound  to  be  in  spite  of  its  tenacity,  the  Valovale 
must  cither  become  converted  and  leave  their  pres- 
ent mode  of  life  or  they  will  die  out  of  their  own 
excesses. 


To  THE  Kassai.  165 

On  reaching  Chisonga,  the  first  kraal  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Lutembwe,  our  guide  positively 
refused  to  go  a  step  further.  So  did  the  other 
four  men,  although  they  had  agreed  to  go  with 
us  to  the  next  kraal  and  were  paid  for  it.  We  had 
only  gone  nine  miles,  and  tried  our  best  to  get  on. 
Never  a  bit  of  it.  The  men  had  done  four  days' 
work  in  succession,  and  they  wanted  a  rest  and 
were  bound  to  have  it.  Under  the  circumstances, 
we  had  to  camp. 

The  reason  why  Chisonga's  men  refused  to  go 
on  with  us  that  day  was  that  they  saw  in  us  an 
opportunity  for  a  brisk  trade.  As  soon  as  we 
had  camped  they  came  with  potatoes  and  beans 
in  large  quantities,  and  limited  amounts  of  meal. 
One  of  them  brought  out  a  steamer  chair,  which 
I  bought.  It  was  home-made,  of  native  mahogany, 
not  badly  carved,  and  an  excellent  imitation  of  a 
steamer  chair.  All  along  here  we  were  offered 
small  stools,  and  bought  two  or  three.  They  were 
made  of  a  neatly  carved  framework  about  a  foot 
high,  over  which  was  stretched  dressed  leather. 

Chisonga  and  his  men  were  remarkable  for  two 
things.  First,  they  were  unusually  short  of  stat- 
ure; and,  secondly,  they  wore  their  hair  in  a  most 
elaborate  copy  of  the  "waterfall"  of  thirty  years 


166    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

ago.  Their  imitation  of  the  corkscrew  curls  was 
accompHshed  by  a  generous  use  of  grease  and 
black  clay. 

When  I  went  for  my  promised  guide  in  the 
morning,  the  smallest  man  in  the  lot  was  given  to 
me.  As  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  carry  a  sev- 
enty-pound load,  I  was  dismayed.  But  when  he 
transferred  the  whole  load  to  the  head  of  his 
little  son,  who  did  not  look  to  be  more  than  ten 
years  old,  and  he  himself  set  off  loadless  as  our 
guide,  I  interfered.  I  made  him  carry  fifteen 
pounds  himself,  but  in  spite  of  me  the  youngster 
had  to  carry  the  rest  for  twelve  miles  that  day. 

This  shows  another  difference  from  what  we 
were  used  to  previously.  We  had  reached  the 
country  where  men  are  trained  for  the  trail  and 
who  refuse  to  do  any  other  work.  These  Valovale 
will  carry  loads — now,  though  they  did  not  do 
that  nmch  when  the  missionary  first  arrived — and 
the  time  will  come  when  they  will  learn  that  other 
work  must  be  done  by  freemen  also.  But  as  long 
as  they  can  own  slaves  and  women  they  will  not 
do  it. 

Our  path  this  day  took  us  through  an  almost 
endless  succession  of  kraals.  We  passed  from  one 
cassava  field  into  another.  We  were  just  north  of 
Lake  Dilolo,  in  a  flat  country  of  white  sand,  and 


To  THE  Kassai.  167 

we  must  have  passed  at  least  twenty  kraals  and 
saw  many  more  to  one  side. 

We  were  getting  used  to  the  cassava  meal  now, 
having  had  more  or  less  of  it  for  three  weeks.  The 
natives  here  raise  little  or  no  millet  or  corn.  A 
few  sweet  potatoes  and  beans  and  the  castor  oil 
plant  are  their  chief  products.  They  are  very  fond 
of  the  castor  oil,  which  they  use  for  anointing 
their  bodies  and  dressing  their  hair. 

After  gathering  the  oil  beans  they  roast  them, 
pound  them  to  powder  in  a  mortar,  and  then  boil 
the  meal,  skimming  off  the  oil.  They  have  pro- 
duced such  large  quantities  of  castor  oil  that  the 
missionaries  use  it  in  their  lamps,  which  purpose  it 
answers  very  nicely — ^that  is,  in  the  student-lamp 
style. 

The  cassava  meal  is  prepared  thus:  The  root 
is  dug  from  the  ground  when  it  is  about  the  size 
of  a  large  sweet  potato.  The  bitter  cassava  is 
mostly  cultivated.  The  bitterness  is  caused  by  the 
presence  of  prussic  acid,  so  that,  if  the  root  is  eaten 
raw,  a  case  of  serious  poisoning  often  follows.  To 
get  rid  of  this,  the  root  is  soaked  for  about  ten 
days.  It  is  much  better,  according  to  Occidental 
taste,  when  soaked  in  a  clear  stream  of  running 
water.  But  evidently  the  native  differs  in  his 
opinion,  and  so  the  women  hunt  up  some  sluggish 


168    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

spring,  some  stagnant  pool,  or  swampy  mud-hole, 
in  which  to  soak  and,  incidentally,  flavor  the  pre- 
cious root. 

When  it  is  soaked  soft,  or,  as  a  heartless  Euro- 
pean would  put  it,  "rotten,"  the  women  wade  into 
these  holes.  We  saw  them  frequently  standing  in 
the  mud  and  water  nearly  up  to  their  waists,  while 
the  odor  from  these  mud-holes  reminded  me  of  the 
familiar  pig-sty  smells  of  my  boyhood  days.  The 
women  take  the  root  out,  peel  it  then  and  there, 
and  place  it  in  baskets,  which  they  carry  on  their 
heads  back  to  the  kraals.  Here  the  root  is  placed 
on  the  roof  to  dry,  after  which  it  is  pounded  and 
sifted  and  pounded  again  until  it  becomes  flour. 
When  cooked  it  resembles  thick,  minute  pudding, 
but  has  the  color  and  a  bit  of  the  consistency 
of  India  rubber,  and  a  decidedly  sour  taste.  When 
we  first  came  to  this  our  carriers  made  a  great  fuss 
and  declared  they  could  not  eat  it.  But  when  they 
found  we  were  eating  it  they  subsided. 

And  we  did  eat  it,  and  were  glad  of  the  chance. 
Nevertheless,  when  wc  reached  ^Nlalange  and  were 
able  to  get  other  food,  I  do  not  recall  that  any  of 
us  regretted  leaving  the  "fungi"  behind.  It  is 
nutritious ;  and  having  said  that,  there  is  little 
more  to  say. 

Once  more  we  were  nearing  the  water-shed.    We 


To  THE  Kassai.  169 

camped  near  Chawo's  kraal,  and  in  reply  to  my 
messenger  Chawo  sent  back  word  that  he  did  not 
intend  to  come  out  to  see  the  white  man.  Later  on 
he  thought  better  of  it  and  came  down  with  a 
number  of  his  people,  bringing  a  present  of  meal 
and  a  tiny  fowl. 

I  arranged  with  him  for  a  guide  the  next  day 
and  for  three  carriers.  To  my  surprise  ten  young 
bucks,  all  done  up  in  castor  oil  and  red  ochre,  ap- 
peared. Kendall  took  on  the  others.  The  chief 
made  me  promise  that  I  would  not  strike  one  of 
the  men  before  he  let  them  go.  To  them  a  blow 
is  the  brand  of  slavery,  and  they  are  mortally 
afraid  of  it. 

We  moved  on  at  a  most  cheering  pace  for  six 
miles,  when  we  came  to  a  kraal  and  a  dead  stop. 
The  new  men  said  they  wanted  water,  so  all  hands 
went  to  a  clump  of  trees  and  drank  from  a  spring. 
Then  they  told  me  that  the  chief  had  instructed 
them  to  sleep  there  that  night,  as  the  next  water 
was  far,  far  ahead.  It  was  like  the  old  cry  of 
wolf,  and  I  did  not  believe  them ;  but  this  time  they 
were  right. 

However,  I  could  not  stop  there,  and  so  I  in- 
sisted and  persisted  until  I  finally  got  them  to 
shoulder  their  loads  and  go  on.     We  were  now  on 


170    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

the  water-shed  again,  crossing  it  for  the  third  and 
last  time. 

We  were  also  on  a  treeless  plain,  which  is  known 
as  the  Kifumagi  Flats.  When  we  had  made  five 
miles  more  and  noon  time  came,  we  looked  in  vain 
for  a  tree,  which  should  be  the  sign  of  water. 

At  length  we  came  to  a  hole  about  two  feet 
deep,  in  which  was  some  rather  dubious-looking 
water,  but  hard  travel  does  away  with  over-fas- 
tidiousness, and  we  were  glad  for  what  water  we 
could  get  while  we  had  our  simple  lunch.  I  had 
never  before  in  my  travels  in  Africa  seen  a  country 
like  this.  It  reminded  me  very  forcibly  of  the 
Dakota  prairies  when  we  first  moved  to  them  in 
the  eighties.  There  was  the  same  mirage  effect 
and  the  same  haze. 

The  sun  beat  down  pitilessly  that  day,  and 
we  all  suffered  greatly  from  tliirst.  We  found  one 
other  water-hole  before  night,  but  the  water  was  so 
muddy  that  we  left  it  to  our  carriers,  who  drained 
it  eagerly  to  the  very  bottom. 

Then  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  trees  ahead,  at 
the  sight  of  which  our  boys  burst  into  singing. 
But  we  found  ourselves  under  that  same  illusion  as 
to  distances  that  we  liad  been  familiar  with  in 
Dakota.  The  trees  meant  water,  but  we  had  sev- 
eral weary  miles  before  we  reached  it. 


To  THE  Kassai.  171 

When  we  had  stopped  at  the  little  stream  in 
the  morning  we  drank  from  one  of  the  contribu- 
tors to  the  Zambesi,  and  when,  just  about  sunset, 
we  reached  another  living  stream,  it  was  one  of 
the  tributaries  of  the  Kassai,  wliich  empties  into 
the  Congo. 

Just  a  few  rods  before  reaching  these  springs 
of  the  Katala  River  we  crossed  the  wagon  track 
between  Benguela  and  Ruwi.  Despite  the  fact 
that  no  wagon  had  passed  that  way  for  weeks, 
the  very  sight  of  wheel  tracks  gave  us  a  delight- 
ful sensation  of  companionship  in  strong  contrast 
to  the  feeling  of  strangeness  that  comes  from 
weeks  among  a  savage  and  inhospitable  people,     ,^ 

In  two  or  three  years  the  railroad  will  be  laid 
on  or  near  this  wagon  track,  which  follows  the  al- 
most level  water-shed  for  hundreds  of  miles.  Rail- 
road construction  will  be  an  easy  matter  along  this 
water-shed,  where  it  has  been  estimated  that  there 
are  about  450  miles  in  one  stretch  where  there  will 
be  no  need  of  a  bridge  or  culvert. 

An  amusing  incident  occurred  as  we  reached 
the  water  that  day.  Our  thirsty  carriers  dropped 
their  loads  and  not  only  began  to  drink,  but 
plunged  into  the  springs,  dashing  water  all  over 
their  bodies.  The  most  fastidious  of  the  two  white 
men  with  us,  forgetting  in  his  severe  thirst  that 


172    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

the  stream  was  flowing  north,  went  a  Httle  distance 
beyond  them  and,  not  being  able  to  wait  for  his 
drinking-cup  to  arrive,  took  a  gourd  from  one  of 
his  men,  carefully  washed  it,  and  then  drank  to 
his  heart's  content  of  the  cool  waters. 

As  soon  as  his  burning  thirst  was  allaj^ed  he 
looked  around  and  discovered  a  dozen  carriers  bath- 
ing in  the  stream  j  ust  above  him.  At  another  time 
he  would  have  been  furiously  indignant,  but  this 
time  the  humor  of  his  carefully-washed  gourd  ap- 
pealed to  his  risibles.  The  fact  was,  he  said,  he 
had  never  tasted  such  good  water  in  all  his  life, 
even  if  the  natives  had  bathed  in  it. 
-^  That  night  the  Chawo  carriers  complained  a 
good  deal  about  their  backs,  and  we  wondered  if 
they  would  go  on.  We  had  done  in  one  day  what 
they  had  planned  to  do  in  two.  But  the  next  morn- 
ing, although  they  were  a  bit  slow  about  cooking 
and  eating  their  breakfast,  they  shouldered  their 
loads  and  started.  Four  miles  on,  however,  they 
wanted  to  stop  for  the  day.  I  got  them  to  go  on  for 
another  mile.  We  had  just  crossed  a  small  stream, 
when  they  laid  down  their  loads  and  absolutely 
refused  to  proceed  further.  Talking  and  promises 
were  of  no  avail ;  they  would  n't  budge,  and  there 
was  no  getting  them  further,  so  I  had  to  rearrange 
loads,  take  machilla  men,  and  get  on  to  the  next 


To  THE  Kassai.  173 

kraal,  three  miles  away,  as  best  I  could.  Here  I 
was  able  to  get  three  men  to  go  on  with  us. 

At  noon  one  of  these  new  men  insisted  that 
there  was  no  water  ahead,  and  I  learned  later  that 
that  was  true  as  regards  the  direct  trail.  But  I 
had  heard  that  excuse  so  often  I  was  skeptical,  so 
I  made  him  take  us  along.  He  soon  turned  off 
the  direct  trail  and  took  us  to  a  group  of  kraals, 
where  we  had  a  good  camp  for  Sunday  and  were 
able  to  get  a  fair  amount  of  food. 

For  three  more  days  we  traveled  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Kassai  River,  not  being  more  than  ten 
miles  distant  from  it  at  any  time.  I  understand 
from  the  maps  and  the  natives  that  the  Kassai 
parallels  the  water-shed  for  about  three  hundred 
miles  or  more,  and  in  all  that  distance  is  never  far 
from  it. 

It  is  fed  by  a  number  of  springs  which  rise 
on  the  edge  of  the  Kifumagi  Flats,  but  its  greatest 
supply  comes  from  the  higher  lands  on  the  north 
side. 

On  the  night  of  the  23d  of  July  we  camped 
at  the  kraal  of  Chilalo  and  the  next  morning 
crossed  the  Kassai  at  the  famous  Muwewe,  an  out- 
crop of  solid  rock  through  which  the  river  has  worn 
a  narrow  channel  about  ten  feet  wide.     The  natives 


174    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

had  thrown  a  lot  of  poles  across,  thus  making  a 
bridge,  over  which  our  caravan  safely  crossed. 

There  are  no  falls  here  that  we  could  see,  but 
there  are  considerable  rapids  above  and  below 
Muwewe.  The  river  takes  an  easterly  course  for 
about  two  hundred  miles  below  Muwewe,  and  then 
bends  abruptly  to  the  north,  where  it  flows  through 
the  heart  of  the  Lunda  country. 


CHAPTER  X. 
AMONG  THE  BACHIOKWE. 

We  were  now  but  a  day's  march  from  the 
dreaded  and  dreadful  Bachiokwe.  From  the  days 
of  Livingstone,  who  had  so  much  trouble  with 
them,  this  tribe  has  earned  and  maintained  a  thor- 
oughly bad  name.  They  gave  Livingstone  more 
trouble  than  any  other  tribe  through  which  he 
passed.  Every  chief  tried  to  rob  him,  and  in  one 
case  he  and  his  little  band  were  surrounded,  and  it 
was  evident  that  murder  and  plunder  was  the  ob- 
ject. For  hours  Livingstone  sat  with  his  double- 
barrelled  gun  across  his  knees,  ready  for  action  if 
absolutely  necessary.  Once  he  did  have  to  point 
the  gun  at  a  native.  But  after  he  had  been  fairly 
robbed  by  fines,  he  and  his  men  managed  to  get 
away  without  bloodshed. 

But  every  chief  held  him  up  in  the  same  way, 
so  that  it  is  with  satisfaction  that  we  find  one  in- 
stance where  Livingstone's  party  got  the  best  of 
these  villainous  savages.  He  says:  "One  of  the 
oxen  we  offered  the  Chiboque  [as  he  calls  them] 

175 


176    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

had  been  rejected  because  he  had  lost  part  of  his 
tail,  as  they  thought  it  had  been  cut  off  and  some 
medicine  inserted;  and  some  mirth  was  excited  by 
my  proposing  to  raise  similar  objections  to  all  the 
oxen  we  still  had  in  our  possession.  The  remaining 
four  soon  presented  a  singular  shortness  in  their 
caudal  extremities,  and  though  no  one  ever  asked 
if  they  had  medicine  in  the  stumps  or  no,  we  were 
no  more  troubled  by  the  demand  for  an  ox." 

So  from  the  time  we  reached  Broken  Hill  and 
mentioned  going  through  the  Bachiokwe  country, 
we  had  been  warned  against  it.  To  be  sure,  Mr. 
Schindler  had  come  from  Malange  by  that  route, 
but  he  found  it  almost  impossible  to  get  food,  and 
his  party  was  met  with  open  hostility.  At  the 
best,  he  had  "to  buy  his  way  through."  As  we 
had  nothing  to  pay,  this  mode  was  impossible.  We 
did  not  have  oxen,  like  Livingstone,  nor  a  large 
stock  of  cloth,  like  Schindler.  Another  reason  why 
we  were  warned  was  that  Mr.  Boyd-Cunningham 
had  been  killed  by  them  in  1905,  and  no  punish- 
ment had  been  meted  out  to  them  for  the  murder, 
by  the  Portuguese.  But  as  they  have  never  yet 
been  subdued  by  the  Portuguese,  such  a  punish- 
ment would  have  been  impossible.  Nevertheless  it 
was  true  that  the  murder  of  one  white  man  did  not 
add  to  the  safety  of  another. 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  177 

When  we  had  arrived  at  Malange  we  were  told 
a  story  about  a  former  "Governor  of  the  Lunda 
Country,"  which  is  the  title  still  enjoyed  by  a  man 
whose  residence  is  at  Malange  and  who  has  never 
been  among  either  the  Balunda  nor  the  Bachiokwe. 
This  former  governor  really  had  an  ambition  to 
be  a  governor  indeed,  and  so  made  a  journey  into 
the   Bachiokwe   country.      He   was   "warmly"    re- 
ceived.    When  he  sat  dawn  to  his  sumptuous  re- 
past the  Bachiokwe  gathered  around  him  and  with 
openly  insulting  insolence  snatched  the  food  from 
his  table  and  ate  it  themselves.     It  was  clear  to  him 
at  once  that  his  official  residence  had  better  be  kept 
in  Malange  and  the  fierce  Bachiokwe  should  not  be 
forced  into  paying  taxes.      However,  as  most  of 
the  Portuguese  officials  are  in  Angola  to  recruit 
their  fortunes,  they  have  found  this  very  Bachiokwe 
country  yielding  great  profits  through  its  rubber 
and  slave  trade.     Though  they  may  not  go  there 
themselves,  they  send  their  native  emissaries  to  buy 
the  rubber  and  slaves  for  them. 

It  should  be  stated  that  the  laws  and  the  gen- 
eral public  opinion  of  Portugal  are  strictly  against 
slavery  and  the  oppression  of  the  natives. 

However,   capital  punishment  is   not   adminis- 
tered in  Portugal,  the  convicts  being  deported  to 
the  Colonies,  particularly  to  Angola.  Thus  it  comes 
12 


178    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

to  pass  that  when  the  terms  of  many  of  these  con- 
victs are  finished,  some  go  into  business  as  traders 
and  others  are  not  infrequently  given  official  po- 
sitions in  the  government. 

Thus  Portugal  has  the  misfortune  of  being 
most  commonly  represented  in  Africa  by  ex-crim- 
inals, who  do  not  scruple  to  engage  in  the  slave 
trade  nor  to  defraud  and  prey  upon  the  natives  in 
every  way  that  greed  and  lust  might  suggest. 

While  slavery  is  illegal,  those  so  disposed  find 
a  way  to  circumvent  the  laws  and  carry  on  an 
actual  slave  traffic  under  the  regulations  relating 
to  "indentured  laborers,"  aided  in  many  instances 
by  officials  who  doubtless  share  in  the  profits. 

Though  often  denied,  that  such  a  traffic  in 
human  beings  does  actually  exist  at  the  present  day 
was  frankly  admitted  to  me  by  a  most  estimable 
Portuguese  gentleman  who  had  been  governor  of 
one  of  the  Portuguese  colonics  in  Africa  and  who 
had  traveled  extensively  in  Angola.  He  spoke  of 
it  with  deep  regret  and  expressed  the  hope  that  the 
opening  up  of  Africa  at  large  would  destroy  the 
slave  trade  and  put  Angola  on  a  sound  business 
footing  like  the  British  possessions. 

The  planters  make  no  bones  of  having  slaves, 
and  in  fact  traders  and  other  individuals  speak 
freely  of  their  slaves. 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  179 

The  "Indentured  laborer"  theory  certainly 
needs  investigation  when  the  victims  have  to  be 
brought  from  the  interior  bound  with  the  heavy 
logs  and  chains,  as  we  frequently  saw  them  on  our 
journey. 

After  crossing  the  Kassai  we  had  but  one  day's 
march  along  sandy  trails  in  a  sparsely  settled  coun- 
try before  we  came  to  the  Bachiokwe.  We  had  not 
been  able  to  get  any  Balovale  men  to  go  with  us 
as  guides,  there  being  no  more  fellowship  between 
the  two  tribes  than  between  the  Jews  and  the  Sa- 
maritans. The  Balovale  were  not  risking  their 
necks  to  the  Bachiokwe  slave  yoke. 

Nor  were  we  able  to  get  the  Bachiokwe  them- 
selves to  act  as  guides.  For  this  tribe,  although 
large  and  powerful,  does  not  owe  allegiance  to  any 
one  chief,  but  each  little  district  has  its  own.  chief 
and  is  a  law  unto  itself.  During  the  three  weeks 
that  we  were  passing  through  the  Bachiokwe  coun- 
try I  was  able  to  get  guides  for  only  two  days. 

It  was,  therefore,  with  serious  minds  that  we 
found  ourselves  approaching  the  territory  of  this 
hostile  and  independent  tribe.  Taking  my  com- 
pass, I  proceeded  in  a  general  westerly  direction. 
We  had  camped  that  night  in  a  rubber  forest,  be- 
side a  little  stream  of  clear,  cold  water.  Nearby 
was    a    kraal    whose    people    were    friendly    and 


180    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

brought  us  plenty  of  food  to  buy.  When  we 
awoke  in  the  morning,  the  vlej  through  which  this 
stream  runs  was  all  white  Avith  hoar  frost — an 
almost  daily  experience  with  us  in  the  Bachiokwe 
country. 

We  had  learned  that  the  next  village  we  found 
would  be  Bachiokwe.  It  was  a  new  experience. 
Heretofore  we  had  either  known  that  the  natives 
were  friendly  or  had  been  blissfully  ignorant  of 
what  they  might  be.  Now  we  were  well  aware  of 
the  desperate  character  the  people  ahead  bore,  and 
although  we  did  not  for  a  minute  doubt  that  we 
should  go  through  in  safety,  it  could  not  be  other- 
wise than  that  silence  fell  upon  us. 

After  about  three  miles,  as  we  came  to  an  open 
vlej,  we  saw  cattle  grazing,  and  just  beyond  them 
fantastically  dressed  men  uttering  peculiar  cries  to 
frighten  us.  At  that  moment  ^Irs.  Springer  was 
more  afraid  of  a  particularly  inquisitive  cow  than 
of  the  fiercest  band  of  savages,  and  my  attention 
had  to  be  given  to  the  wondering  cattle.  For, 
though  these  seemed  tame,  some  of  the  native  cat- 
tle are  belligerent  enough. 

As  we  drew  near  to  the  men,  they  hesitated, 
half  in  curiosity  and  half  in  defiance,  still  uttering 
their  shrill  cries.  There  were  three  of  them,  clad 
in   long,   grass-fringed   belts,   hideous   masks   and 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  181 

headgear,  their  bodies  smeared  with  grease  and  red 
ochre,  and  their  footprints  showed  that  they  had 
some  kind  of  rubber  soles  on  their  feet.  They  had 
bells,  which  they  jingled  in  accompaniment  to  their 
cries,  and  it  was  evident  that  they  intended  to  fill 
us  with  terror.  But  the  distant  sound  of  a  drum 
was  more  formidable.  The  apparition  of  the  witch- 
doctors and  the  sound  of  the  drum  signified  that 
a  devil  dance  was  on  hand,  the  depth  of  wickedness 
of  which  is  beyond  description. 

A  fourth  witch-doctor  had  started  to  cross  the 
vlej,  when  a  young  man  ran  out  and  shouted  des- 
perately for  him  to  stop.  This  he  did,  much  to 
our  regret,  as  we  would  have  liked  a  closer  view  of 
his  costume.  But,  although  he  was  a  long  way 
off,  we  could  see  that  his  hat  (if  such  it  might  be 
called)  resembled  a  boat,  on  the  top  of  which  was 
a  large  white  disk. 

It  was  with  a  sense  of  relief  that,  having  passed 
this  group  of  villages,  we  heard  the  sounds 
of  the  drum  dying  in  the  distance.  The  country 
was  more  broken  now,  and  our  general  trail  par- 
alleled the  Kassai,  which  wound  in  and  out  between 
two  ranges  of  low  hills. 

As  we  passed  through  the  kraals  I  would  ask, 
"Which  is  the  path  to  Malange?"  For  the  most 
part  the  question  was  met  with  sullen  silence,  as  if 


182    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

it  had  not  been  heard  at  all.  In  one  of  the  several 
kraals  a  man  sprang  up  and  led  us  out  onto  the 
right  path,  and  was  very  courteous,  but  the  most 
of  them  would  do  nothing. 

It  is  not  so  hard  to  travel  by  the  compass,  once 
you  get  started  aright  from  a  kraal,  but  at  each 
kraal  there  are  so  many  garden  paths,  water  paths, 
and  all  sorts  of  paths  which  have  only  a  local  value, 
that  it  is  very  hard  to  know  which  way  to  go  out 
of  a  village. 

During  the  day  we  made  twenty-two  miles  and 
must  have  passed  some  twenty  kraals,  most  of  them 
being  Bachiokwe,  or,  as  the  people  in  the  southern 
half  of  their  country  call  themselves,  Bachioko. 

The  next  day,  Saturday,  was  a  sharp  contrast 
to  this.  Instead  of  following  the  river  wc  went 
away  from  it  and  spent  nearly  the  whole  day  in 
parched,  empty  country.  The  very  forests  had 
been  burned,  and  presented  a  charred,  inhospitable, 
funereal  aspect  for  long,  weary  miles.  During  the 
day  we  came  to  only  three  kraals,  and  the  men  in 
them  refused  to  act  as  guides  and  would  hardly 
show  us  the  path  out. 

More  than  once  we  got  on  tlie  wrong  trail,  as 
wc  judged  from  the  compass,  and  once  had  to 
march  a  ways  over  the  blackened  veld.  Our  throats 
were  parched  with  thirst.     About  noon  the  sun  was 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  183 

powerful,  and  still  we  had  to  march  wearily  on 
through  this  desolate  wilderness  with  only  deserted 
and  burned  kraals  to  mark  what  had  been  a  lively 
community  last  year.  It  may  have  been  some  slave 
raid  that  had  done  tliis  work.  We  could  not  learn 
from  the  natives. 

It  was  Saturday,  and  two  things  we  must  have : 
food  and  water.  At  last  we  halted  near  signs  of 
human  habitation,  while  I  started  out  with  my 
capitao,  determined  in  desperation  to  camp  near 
water  if  I  could  find  it,  and  then  move  on  again  on 
the  morrow  if  no  kraal  was  within  reach.  The 
whole  caravan  was  done  out.  For  nothing  will  use 
up  a  caravan  quicker  than  to  be  short  of  water. 
They  can  go  without  food,  but  not  without  water. 

Fortunately  we  soon  found  an  old  man,  who 
led  us  to  a  good  camping-place  on  the  banks  of  a 
steep  ravine.  He  made  us  understand  that  his 
kraal  was  not  far  away  and  that  we  could  get 
food.  So  I  returned  to  the  others,  who  were  sit- 
ting around  dejectedly  on  stumps  and  logs,  and 
we  all  thanked  God  and  took  courage. 

Our  Sunday  services  were  rather  unique  and 
not  most  satisfactory.  We  sang  hymns  in  five  dif- 
ferent languages,  including  English,  and  had 
prayer  in  three.  When  it  came  to  preaching  it 
took  three  or  four  different  interpreters,  and  I  con- 


184    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

fess  I  have  m^^  doubts  about  the  clearness  of  the 
message  as  it  passed  through  so  many  mouths. 
Here  and  all  through  the  Bachiokwe  tribe  I  made 
it  my  great  point  to  get  them  to  clearly  under- 
stand, though  often  with  difficulty,  that  we  were 
missionaries,  and  not  slavers.  This  was  made  easier 
by  the  fact  that  nearly  everywhere  I  would  find 
some  one  who  either  knew  of  or  who  knew  some  one 
else  who  had  known  one  of  our  missionaries  at  Ma- 
lange  or  Quionga. 

In  the  days  of  Bishop  Taylor,  when  our  mis- 
sionaries used  to  trade  extensively  for  wax  and 
rubber,  they  were  widely  known  among  these  in- 
terior tribes  for  their  honest  dealings  and  because 
they  did  not  deal  in  rum.  The  native  from  the  far 
interior  liked  to  go  where  he  could  be  sure  of 
getting  a  good  price  for  liis  bees-wax  and  rubber 
and  where  he  could  get  a  goodly  quantity  of  bar- 
ter to  carry  back  instead  of  a  howling  drunk  and 
a  sore  head. 

One  reason  for  our  friendly  reception  here  b}^ 
this  kraal  was  that  one  of  the  men  had  once  known 
a  missionary,  and  therefore  vouched  for  it  that  we 
were  all  right.  So  fearless  were  they  that  one  man 
offered  to  become  our  guide  the  next  day,  and  it 
was  a  day  when  we  needed  a  guide  badly ;  another 
man  offered  to  go  also  and  carry  a  load. 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  185 

Monday  night  we  camped  near  a  kraal  where 
preparations  were  going  on  for  a  big  dance.  The 
people  were  all  hideous  in  red  and  white  paint,  with 
fantastic  head-dress,  and  very  little  other  dress. 
They  would  not  come  to  our  camp  with  food,  and 
so  I  had  to  go  to  them.  The  chief  was  very  sour 
and  surly.  He  would  give  me  no  present,  but  kept 
bringing  out  bits  of  meal  in  his  hands,  for  which 
he  wanted  a  big  price  in  beads.  His  people,  too, 
were  very  independent,  evidently  selling  only  just 
to  be  rid  of  us,  so  that  the  dance  could  begin. 

As  the  yelling  and  howling  reached  our  ears 
we  felt  a  bit  uneasy.  It  would  be  an  easy  matter 
for  a  drunken  crowd  like  that  to  wipe  out  a  little 
band  like  ours.  It  was  a  noteworthy  fact  that  our 
guide  and  his  companion  did  not  go  up  to  the  kraal 
at  all,  but  camped  with  our  men.  Once  during  the 
first  part  of  the  night  the  singing  grew  plainer 
and  we  feared  a  visitation,  but  the  noise  quieted 
down  again  and  we  were  left  In  peace. 

In  the  morning  the  two  men  said  they  had 
done  two  days'  work  and  wanted  pay  for  it,  so  I 
had  to  pay  them  and  let  them  go.  The  first  man 
had  required  his  pay  for  a  day  in  advance  before 
we  started  out.  This  is  characteristic  of  the 
Bachiokwe.  They  trust  no  man,  whether  friend  or 
foe,  of  their  own  tribe  or  another.     At  least  this 


186    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

is  the  impression  they  give  a  stranger  passing 
through.  They  go  about  armed,  and  even  in  the 
kraals  we  noticed  the  men  kept  their  guns  within 
easy  reach.  There  must  be  a  reason  for  such  an 
atmosphere  of  constant  distrust  and  suspicion,  and 
there  is:  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  still-existing, 
hydra-headed  slave  trade. 

The  rest  of  the  week  was  about  the  same  story 
of  steep  climbs  and  descents,  miles  of  travel  through 
beautiful  rubber  forests,  crossing  vigorous  streams 
of  fine,  cold  water,  and  struggling  to  get  enough 
for  our  boys  to  eat  each  night.  It  was  a  con- 
stant effort  now  to  do  this.  Indeed,  we  found  that 
we  must  not  depend  on  any  one  kraal,  and  much 
time  was  spent  daily  in  trying  to  buy  at  each 
village  through  which  we  passed.  Now  and  then 
I  could  give  my  earners  a  decent  meal,  but  oftener 
they  had  short  rations. 

Our  own  food  was  scarce  and  we  had  to  share 
with  our  boys  in  going  hungry  and  in  eating  the 
sour  cassava  meal  mush,  which  was  the  only  thing 
we  could  get  in  this  country.  The  nights  were 
biting  cold  and  the  days  hot,  so,  take  it  all  in  all, 
we  were  not  in  the  most  cheerful  mood.  During  the 
week  we  crossed  the  Kwangu  River  about  twenty- 
five  miles  above  the  falls,  and  so  mountainous  is 
that  section  that  we  had  to  cross  the  river  tliree 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  187 

times  in  about  two  hours,  each  time  on  native 
bridges  of  poles. 

The  next  Saturday  was  a  very  hard  day.  We 
got  on  the  wrong  trail  at  a  deserted  kraal  and 
soon  found  we  were  going  southwest  instead  of 
northwest.  The  trail  then  led  us  to  a  recently 
burned  kraal,  where  all  traces  of  a  path  in  our 
direction  were  wiped  out.  After  much  loss  of  time 
I  once  more  started  on  a  very  faint  old  trail 
through  the  forest.  It  was  hard  for  my  men  to 
follow  me  and  we  got  badly  scattered  and  divided. 

Hearing  a  party  of  hunters  in  the  woods  above 
us,  I  sent  a  boy  to  inquire  about  the  trail,  but  at 
the  sight  of  him  they  abruptly  fled  and  we  had 
no  alternative  but  to  keep  on  until  we  found  a 
fresh  path,  which  we  did  after  about  four  miles. 
This  landed  us  at  Kapiya's  kraal,  where  the  people 
lied  so  outrageously  about  everything  that  we  could 
not  tell  really  where  we  were. 

But  as  it  was  a  large  kraal  I  decided  that  we 
would  not  go  farther,  but  stay  here  over  the  Sab- 
bath. The  gardens  showed  that  there  was  food 
in  plenty.  We  asked  them  to  show  us  a  camping- 
place  and  they  took  us  out  a  little  way  past  a 
trader's  temporary  hut,  near  which  was  an  old 
Mambunda  camp,  where  I  counted  more  than  three 
hundred  huts.    I  made  inquiries  about  these  Mam- 


188    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

bunda,  and  they  told  me  they  were  traders  who 
bought  rubber  and  wax.  Did  they  ever  buy 
slaves?  Injured  innocence  insisted  loudly,  no. 
Nevertheless  the  silent  ruins  contradicted  the  as- 
sertion. There  were  the  huts,  with  the  place  for  the 
slave  and  the  place  for  the  guard  who  should 
sleep  with  him. 

After  we  had  made  our  camp  the  men  began 
to  come  down  to  visit  us,  and  soon  a  native,  elab- 
orately dressed,  came  and  asked  if  we  could  speak 
Portuguese.  We  soon  learned  that  he  was  a 
"Mambunda,"  that  is,  a  trader  and  a  term  which 
is  also  applied  to  a  slave  trader.  This  man  was 
an  evil-eyed,  but  an  exceedingly  suave,  oily,  po- 
lite individual.  He  made  many  inquiries  about 
us  and  then  left.  In  the  meantime  the  head  men 
of  the  kraal  had  promised  to  sell  us  food,  and  we 
felt  greatly  pleased  that  we  had  got  where  we 
could  have  a  good  feed  for  our  men  and  a  needed 
Sabbatic  rest. 

But  when  I  sent  to  the  kraal  to  bu}'^  the  food 
this  same  trader  was  there,  and  it  was  evident  that 
he  was  dissuading  the  men  from  selling  to  us.  It 
was,  therefore,  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that 
we  could  get  enough  for  supper.  However,  they 
said  the  women  had  not  had  time  to  grind  the  meal, 
and  we  had  hoped  that  here,  as  in  many  another 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  189 

kraal  among  other  tribes,  that  the  women  would 
start  grinding  at  once  and  we  would  have  plenty 
for  Sunday.  But  it  was  not  so.  The  whole  at- 
mosphere of  the  village  began  to  change,  and  at 
10  o'clock  Sunday  morning  we  saw  that  we  had 
to  break  camp  or  have  our  men  spend  the  day  in 
fasting. 

This  was  the  second  and  last  time  that  we 
had  to  march  on  Sunday.  In  most  cases  Sunday 
travel  can  be  avoided,  and  a  caravan  which  rests 
one  day  in  seven  can  make  better  time  and  come 
out  in  better  condition  than  one  which  pushes 
ahead  every  day.  But  now  and  then  the  inability 
to  reach  or  to  obtain  food  or  water  may  necessi- 
tate Sunday  travel.  It  seemed  remarkable  to  us 
that  in  so  long  a  journey,  on  an  unknown  route, 
on  only  the  two  occasions  we  were  forced  to  do 
this. 

The  men  of  the  kraal  were  so  anxious  to  be 
rid  of  us  for  some  reason  that  they  sent  one  of 
their  men  to  get  us  started  on  our  trail  and  to 
give  us  lengthy  and  explicit  directions  as  to  how 
we  could  reach  the  main  path  at  the  next  village  on 
the  Kwangu  River,  near  some  falls.  In  fact,  they 
gave  us  so  many  directions  that  we  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  follow  them. 

When  we  reached  the  Kwangu  River  again  it 


190    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

appeared  to  be  so  much  smaller  than  we  had  ex- 
pected it  to  be  that  we  halted  to  make  certain  about 
our  course.  On  seeing  a  native  at  the  top  of  the  hill 
on  the  other  side  we  shouted  to  him,  but  on  seeing 
us  he  immediately  disappeared.  We  sent  two  of 
our  men — who  went  very  unwillingly  and  who 
were  careful  to  take  some  clubs  with  them — to  find 
him  or  others  of  whom  to  inquire  the  way.  They 
were  gone  nearly  an  hour,  during  which  time  we 
began  to  speculate  as  to  whether  or  not  they  had 
been  seized  and  Avere  being  held,  when  they  re- 
turned with  a  party  of  young  bucks  who  belonged 
to  the  kraal  we  were  bound  for  and  were  now  re- 
turning from  a  visit.  On  promise  of  compensation 
they  became  our  guides.  They  were  an  impudent 
lot,  and  in  our  trading  for  the  little  food  we  were 
able  to  buy  at  their  village  they  were  most  exorbi- 
tant in  their  charges. 

We  were  charmed  and  captivated  b}^  the  beauty 
of  these  falls  and  the  magnificence  of  the  gorge 
below.  The  falls  consist  of  two  sections  (which, 
however,  flow  over  one  brink  and  in  the  rainy 
season  mingle  their  waters :  the  Kwangu  and  the 
Lutela  Rivers),  the  larger  being  the  Kwangu,  into 
which  the  Lutela  flows  after  their  sheer  plunge 
of  over  two  hundred  feet,  and  from  there  on  the 
waters    tumble    nosily    down    together    over   huge 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  191 

bowlders  another  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hun- 
dred feet  to  the  bottom  of  the  gorge. 

We  clambered  down  the  nearly  precipitous 
sides  of  the  gorge  to  the  river,  and  there,  amidst 
a  wealth  of  tropical  vegetation,  viewed  that  sub- 
lime scene  almost  in  silence. 

What  a  magnificent  work  of  the  Great  Artist 
hidden  away  there  with  only  the  native  to  enjoy  it ! 
The  average  native  is  not  an  appreciative  lover 
of  the  beauties  of  nature.  But  we  found  that  the 
surpassing  beauty  had  even  touched  the  savage 
hearts  around  here.  And  our  carriers  left  their 
food  to  see  these  wonderful  works  of  God  and  for- 
got their  empty  stomachs  in  their  awed  admiration. 

The  fine  banana  grove,  and  palms,  and  ferns 
on  the  steep  sides  of  the  gorge  are  quite  a  con- 
trast to  the  rest  of  the  country,  which  is  high  and 
subject  to  severe  frosts.  The  thermometer  went 
down  to  twenty-seven  degrees  one  morning,  and 
one  or  two  of  the  nights  were  so  cold  that  we 
could  hardly  sleep. 

The  next  morning  we  had  a  very  mountainous 
trail  for  about  six  miles,  where  we  took  our  last 
view  of  the  Kwangu.  It  had  quieted  down  into  a 
deep,  swift  stream  which  flows  northward  until, 
after  about  six  hundred  miles,  it  joins  the  Kassai, 
which  in  turn  empties  into  the  Congo. 


192    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

After  crossing  the  Kwavu,  a  wide,  shallow  con- 
fluent of  the  Kwangu  between  two  steep,  sandy 
banks,  we  came  on  to  a  fine  tableland,  heavily 
wooded  with  fine  big  trees.  What  a  splendid  site 
for  an  industrial  mission!  And  what  a  blessing 
such  a  place  would  be  as  a  change  for  our  An- 
gola workers,  who  are  in  a  less  healthy  section! 
There  are  splendid  possibilities  for  mission  work 
among  these  high-strung,  independent,  sullen 
Bachiokwe.  Their  hatred  of  the  white  man  is  not 
altogether  unprovoked.  They  judge  him  from 
their  knowledge  of  the  worst  class  of  Portuguese 
traders  and  officials. 

There  will  likely  be  a  big  fight  to  get  missions 
started  in  their  country.  The  natives  will  fear  the 
missionary  lest  he  but  make  way  for  the  Portuguese 
Government,  and  that  is  a  well-grounded  fear. 
Still,  with  the  extension  of  the  Lobito  Bay  Rail- 
way, that  country  will  have  to  submit  to  some  Eu- 
ropean power. 

But  the  worst  fight  will  be  with  the  traders, 
those  unprincipled  convicts  and  their  class  who 
have  dealt  in  slaves,  and  rubber,  and  rum.  They 
will  send  their  emissaries  throughout  the  country 
disseminating  the  most  atrocious  lies,  and  at  first 
they  will  probably  succeed  in  turning  the  people 
against  us.      But  a  good  medical   man  who  has 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  193 

plenty  of  grace  and  grit  will  be  able  not  only  to 
hold  his  own,  but  to  win  out  in  what  is  sure  to  be 
a  long,  bitter  fight.  For  we  have  seen  it  proved 
that  nothing  appeals  more  to  the  hearts  of  the 
people  than  to  relieve  them  of  their  physical  suf- 
ferings. 

Arriving  at  Kapila's  kraal  we  were  happily  sur- 
prised to  find  the  people  more  friendly.  As  the 
water  was  far  from  the  kraal  we  went  on  about  a 
mile.  We  had  to  cross  a  narrow,  swampy  vlej ,  and 
in  so  doing,  INlugumirani,  the  oldest  and  strongest 
machilla  carrier,  sunk  into  the  soft,  swampy  ground 
so  that  he  fell  and  had  to  be  rescued,  much  to  the 
amusement  of  his  fellows. 

Near  our  camp  were  two  new  kraals  built  by 
natives  who  had  been  living  off  the  direct  trade 
routes.  They  were  very  friendh^  and  sold  us  suf- 
ficient food  so  that  our  men  had  a  good  meal  that 
night.  I  found  that  whenever  we  got  off  the 
main  trail  frequented  by  traders  and  caravans,  the 
people  were  much  more  friendly.  But  those  on 
the  main  trails  were  usually'  sullen  or  decidedly 
cheeky  and  exorbitant  in  their  charges. 

The  next  day  I  saw  two  large  antelope,  but  did 

not  have  the  fortune  to  hit  them.     Game  is  very 

scarce  all  through  this  territory  owing  to  the  fact 

that  the  natives  have  plenty  of  guns  and  powder. 

13 


194    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Another  day's  stiff  trekking  among  these  moun- 
tains brought  us  late  in  the  afternoon  to  Ka- 
vungu's  kraal.  Here  the  chief  came  out  to  greet 
us  and  all  the  people  were  very  friendly — almost 
too  much  so.  He  brought  out  a  large  basket  of 
meal  and  a  rooster  as  a  present  to  me.  Of  course, 
I  had  to  give  back  more  than  the  worth  of  the 
stuff,  but  it  was  the  polite  thing  for  him  and  every 
chief  to  do. 

The  women  brought  out  plenty  of  meal,  but 
wanted  big  prices  for  it.  I  was,  however,  getting 
along  very  well  in  the  trading  when  one  of  my 
carriers  accidentally'^  (?)  killed  a  small  fowl  be- 
longing to  one  of  the  men  in  the  village.  My 
carrier  said  that  he  Avas  chopping  down  a  tree 
for  firewood  when  this  fowl  popped  its  head  out 
just  in  time  to  get  killed.  No  one  believed  that, 
and  I  was  willing  to  give  the  owner  a  goodly 
amount  of  cloth  in  payment. 

But  at  the  sight  of  the  cloth  his  cupidity  was 
aroused  and  he  said  it  was  a  wholly  inadequate 
compensation  for  his  loss.  I  appealed  to  the  chief 
and  he  said  the  amount  of  cloth  was  sufficient. 
That  settled  the  matter  as  far  as  I  was  concerned. 
Not  so  with  the  native.  He  and  some  of  his  fel- 
lows had  been  drinking  a  very  intoxicating  beer 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  195 

made  from  honey  and  they  were  in  a  quarrelsome 
mood. 

He  said  that  it  was  not  the  chicken  that  he 
wanted  pay  for,  but  that  his  brother's  spirit  had 
been  in  that  fowl  and  he  wanted  a  fine  for  the 
injury  done  to  his  brother.  I  asked  the  chief  if 
his  brother's  spirit  was  in  the  cock  he  had  given 
me,  whereat  they  all  laughed,  which  only  angered 
the  poor  fellow.  The  excitement  ran  high  for 
awhile.  My  men  were  eagerly  and  vociferously 
trying  to  explain  our  case  and  the  villagers  were 
even  more  excitedly  clamoring  for  extortionate 
fines. 

Finally  I  got  my  men  quieted  and  the  kraal 
men  left.  It  was  now  quite  dark,  but  soon  several 
women  came  out  from  the  kraal  and  went  among 
our  men  to  sell  them  more  meal.  I  suspected  a 
trap  and  insisted  on  all  the  women  leaving  at 
once  and  not  coming  out  to  us  again  that  night, 
even  if  we  were  short  of  food. 

By  nine  all  seemed  quiet,  so  we  went  to  bed, 
having  taken  the  precaution  to  have  the  carriers 
sleep  close  to  our  tent.  About  midnight  I  heard 
a  stir  among  them  and  was  all  alert.  Soon  I  heard 
stealthy  steps  coming  toward  the  tent,  and  looking 
out  saw  a  carrier  going  off  with  the  two  steamer 


196    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

chairs.  I  also  saw  that  the  fires  were  blazing 
brightly  and  Kendall  and  Gifford  were  astir. 

Hastily  throwing  a  rug  around  me  I  stepped 
out  and  went  down  to  where  they  were.  They 
had  been  attacked,  verily,  but  by  an  army  of  red 
soldier  ants,  the  most  vicious  of  all  their  kind,  so 
they  had  left  their  respective  sleeping  places  in 
possession  of  these  doughty  little  warriors  and 
worried  out  the  rest  of  the  night  in  chairs  around 
the  fire. 

I  had  decided  that  the  next  morning  we  should 
get  off  before  daylight  in  order  to  avoid  any 
further  trouble.  So  by  the  time  the  first  natives 
were  rubbing  their  eyes  open  our  caravan  was 
quietly  passing  through  the  kraal.  I  left  the 
fowl  and  the  cloth  for  its  payment  under  a  tree. 

After  seven  miles  we  came  to  the  next  village, 
and  there  in  its  midst  sat  the  man  with  whom  I 
had  had  the  trouble.  On  the  ground  before  him 
laj^  the  cloth  and  the  fowl.  Seated  around  were 
three  or  four  of  the  head  men.  The  situation 
looked  a  bit  serious. 

The  man  began  to  talk  to  me,  but  I  inter- 
rupted, saying,  "We  do  not  want  the  fowl,  so  you 
can  do  what  you  like  with  it.  Eat  it  if  you  wish; 
I  am  willing." 

I  knew  perfectly  well  that  that  was  not  at  all 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  197 

what  he  wanted.  He  wished  to  enlist  the  sympa- 
thies of  the  others  so  that  I  would  be  compelled 
to  pay  nearly  all  I  had  of  my  little  remaining 
stock  of  cloth. 

There  was  considerable  discussion,  and  I 
watched  the  faces  narrowly,  and  continued  repeat- 
ing the  same  words  over  and  over.  At  last  the 
humor  of  the  situation  struck  one  of  the  young 
men  and  he  laughed.  I  felt  then  that  I  need  not 
fear  an  attack  and,  as  my  caravan  had  nearly  all 
gathered,  I  told  them  to  shoulder  their  loads  and 
march,  and  they  obeyed  with  an  alacrity  unusual 
to  them,  and  we  passed  on  in  safety. 

These  Bachiokwe  not  only  work  largely  at 
gathering  rubber,  but  they  know  how  to  work  iron 
and  do  excellent  wood  carving.  One  high-backed 
chair  that  I  saw  was  quite  ingenious.  It  was  about 
the  size  of  an  ordinary  kindergarten  chair,  its 
high  back  having  three  small  figures  on  the  top, 
a  man,  woman,  and,  in  the  center,  a  child. 

But  most  of  the  men  work,  when  they  do  work, 
at  gathering  and  preparing  rubber.  The  rubber 
bush,  from  which  they  take  the  roots,  is  about  two 
or  three  feet  high.  They  start  at  the  bush  and 
uncover  the  roots,  which  run  close  to  the  surface, 
to  their  ends.  These  will  be  sometimes  fifteen  to 
twenty  feet  long. 


198    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

The  root  is  then  cut  up  into  lengths  of  about 
a  foot  and  tied  into  small  bundles.  In  one  case 
that  came  under  our  observation  the  bundle  had 
been  soaked  in  the  river.  The  men  then  sit  around 
the  kraals  and  pound  the  wood  fiber  out  of  the 
roots  with  mallets,  which,  in  some  cases,  have  a 
rough  face,  like  those  implements  used  for  pound- 
ing beefsteak. 

When  the  fiber  is  well  pounded  out  the  whole 
is  sifted.  Lastly  the  rubber  is  put  into  a  cleverly 
hollowed  receptacle  which  looks  like  a  drum.  It 
nmst  have  been  made  by  burning  out  a  log  with 
hot  irons.  In  this  the  gum  is  churned  and  then 
taken  out  and  formed  into  what  might  have  easily 
been  mistaken  for  Frankfurters  on  a  skewer.  It 
is  then  ready  for  the  market. 

A  few  miles  farther  on  we  came  to  a  dense 
wood  with  just  room  to  pass  along  the  trail,  and 
then  came  a  drop  of  about  one  thousand  feet,  the 
most  precipitous  descent  we  had  ever  made. 

As  we  came  to  Kanekeno's  kraal  we  found  an- 
other devil  dance  in  progress  and  deemed  it  ad- 
visable to  move  on.  As  Kendall  was  suffering  from 
quinsy,  he  and  GifFord  came  up  in  the  rear.  See- 
ing some  women  at  a  small  stream,  they  asked 
which  trail  we  had  gone,  as  my  marks  on  the  trail 
had   been  obliterated.      The  women   did   not   un- 


Among  the  Bachiokwe.  199 

derstand  and  rushed  away  screaming,  and  soon 
the  two  men  were  confronted  with  six  natives,  who 
came  running  after  them  with  guns,  supposing 
the  white  men  had  tried  to  steal  their  women. 
Fortunately  they  were  able  to  convince  the  bel- 
ligerents of  their  innocence,  and  what  might  have 
been  a  very  nasty  affair  was  avoided. 

But  it  was  with  a  sigh  of  relief  that  we  found 
ourselves  at  night  on  the  outskirts  of  this  tribe  to 
meet  the  Basongo  on  the  morrow. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
TO  MALANGE. 

We  were  now  in  the  Songo  country  with  its 
wide  flats,  and  many  lakes  and  ponds.  We  camped 
that  night  of  August  9th  on  Lake  Ziba,  a  charm- 
ing lakelet  north  of  Lake  Chiwondo. 

In  passing  through  the  Songo  villages  that  day 
we  had  found  the  people  greatly  alarmed  at  our 
approach.  Some  of  the  kraals  were  heavily  stock- 
aded, and  in  one  kraal  we  saw  three  slaves  with 
their  heavy  yokes  and  chains  on,  ready  to  be  sold 
or  marched  off  to  the  market.  In  another  kraal 
we  saw  a  single  man  chained  to  his  slave  j^oke. 

But  when  we  camped  and  the  people  found 
that  there  was  a  white  woman  in  the  caravan,  their 
fears  took  flight  and  curiosity  bordered  on  im- 
pertinence. The  women  fairly  screamed  Avith  de- 
light at  every  act  or  move  of  Mrs.  Springer's. 
And  when  she  took  off  her  helmet  to  comb  her 
hair  their  admiration  knew  no  bounds.  They 
danced  around  her  with  shrieks  and  gesticulations 
200 


To  Malange.  201 

which  were  all  characteristically  feminine,  even 
though  extremely  primitive. 

Now  we  were  where  we  could  buy  and  at  fairly 
reasonable  rates.  The  chief  difficulty  was  that 
we  had  parted  with  nearly  all  of  our  trading 
cloth  and  had  little  to  buy  with.  It  was  new  to 
us  to  find  the  natives  crowding  each  other  in  their 
efforts  to  sell. 

There  were  other  new  features,  and  one  was 
the  women  holding  dogs,  a  thing  we  had  never 
seen  before  outside  of  civilization.  It  is  evidently 
quite  the  style  for  the  Songo  women  to  carry  about 
pet  dogs  and  baby  them  much  the  same  as  do  a 
certain  number  of  their  cultured  sisters. 

There  was  a  marked  contrast  between  the  Ba- 
songo  and  the  Bachiokwe  in  every  way.  The 
Songo  huts  and  kraals  were  slovenly  built  and  un- 
cared  for.  The  people  were  dirty,  frowzly,  and 
physically  inferior  to  the  Bachiokwe.  They  did 
not  manifest  the  same  strength  of  character  as  did 
their  surly  neighbors.  There  was  no  sign  of  in- 
dustry among  them.  There  was  little  or  no  rubber 
in  their  country,  their  gardens  were  not  large  nor 
well  kept,  and  the  grain  they  brought  us  in  such 
large  quantities  was  unground.  They  impressed 
us  as  being  good-natured,  easy-going,  and  shift- 
less. 


202    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

No  doubt  these  conditions  are  largely  due  to 
their  contact  with  the  Portuguese  and  the  demor- 
alizing effects  of  the  rum  and  slave  traffic. 

For  several  days  the  trail  was  generally  either 
very  sandy  or  swampy.  The  forests  were  less 
frequent  and  quite  sparse.  The  elevation  was  con- 
stantly decreasing  and,  as  the  season  was  advancing 
toward  the  summer,  we  were  experiencing  more 
trying  conditions.  The  hotter  weather  and  lower 
altitude  were  rapidly  draining  our  vitality. 

Moreover,  we  were  having  to  make  forced 
marches  every  day,  as  our  provisions  were  nearly 
exhausted  and  our  trading  goods  likewise.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  these  last  two  weeks  before  reaching 
Malange,  we  had  to  average  more  than  twenty- 
four  miles  a  day. 

On  a  Saturday  a  native  overtook  us  on  the 
trail  and  in  reply  to  our  questions  assured  us  that 
at  his  village  we  would  find  plenty  of  good  water 
and  food,  and  that  it  was  nearby,  just  across  the 
vlej.  So  we  followed  on  after  him,  mile  after  mile, 
until  after  a  twenty-six-mile  trek  for  the  day  we 
were  almost  exhausted  and  unable  to  proceed  far- 
ther; near  at  hand  was  a  small  kraal  and  some 
doubtful  water. 

Seeing  a  clump  of  trees  near-by  on  that  large, 
bare  flat,  we  started  for  them  to  make  our  camp, 


To  Malange.  203 

whereupon  the  natives  began  to  make  a  great  hub- 
bub and  we  learned  that  that  was  their  cemetery. 
For  the  rest  of  the  journey  we  found  that  the  na- 
tives had  chosen  all  the  best  and  sometimes  the  only 
shady  spots  for  the  burial  of  their  dead. 

The  only  other  place  we  could  find  for  a  camp 
was  near  two  very  small,  scrubby  trees.  Our  beau- 
tiful forest  camps  were  all  behind  us.  I^'rom  this 
on  the  camps  were  all  shadeless  and  the  water  de- 
cidedly bad.  At  this  place  firewood  was  so  scarce 
that  we  actually  had  to  buy  it  from  the  natives. 
They  brought  out  tiny  bundles  and  asked  a  big 
price  for  them,  but  we  had  to  pay  it  or  go  without. 
Generally  they  asked  for  salt. 

Here  we  met  with  a  true  Shylock.  The 
African  is  notably  sharp  as  a  trader,  even  in  the 
most  remote  parts  of  the  continent.  But  four 
hundred  years  of  dickering  with  the  Portuguese 
has  developed  in  the  neighboring  tribes  very  un- 
desirable traits. 

This  Shylock  was  from  the  village  of  our  guide, 
three  miles  farther  on.  Hearing  that  we  wanted 
to  buy  meat,  he  soon  appeared  with  a  sheep,  for 
which  he  asked  double  its  value.  I  told  him  what 
I  would  pay  and  he  began  the  old,  familiar  hag- 
gling. When  I  refused  to  enter  into  that  kind  of 
thing  and  told  him  exactly  what  I  would  pay  and 


204    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

no  more,  he  went  off  with  the  sheep.  Although 
friendly  and  curious,  the  Songo  people,  like  the 
Bachiokwe,  made  us  no  presents. 

We  saw  our  Shylock  on  Monday  morning 
again.  As  we  came  to  his  kraal  there  were  so  many 
well-trodden  paths  over  the  treeless  plain  that  we 
were  compelled  to  halt  and  inquire.  This  old  fel- 
low came  out  and  with  a  sardonic  smirk  on  his  face 
asked  me  how  much  I  would  give  him  to  tell  me 
the  way,  I  told  him  plainly  that  I  would  give 
him  nothing,  and  turned  away  in  disgust.  As  our 
band  began  to  move  forward  several  other  men  ran 
out  and  told  us  we  were  wrong,  and  one  of  them 
went  a  few  rods  to  put  us  right.  I  gave  him  a 
needle  and  thread  for  his  trouble. 

All  that  day  we  were  skirting  swamps  or 
crossing  the  deep  streams  connecting  them.  In 
the  villages  we  found  abundant  evidences  of  the 
excessive  witchcraft  practiced  by  the  people.  Fet- 
ishes and  charms  were  hung  all  along  the  paths 
and  at  the  entrances  to  the  kraals.  We  also  saw 
several  natives  wearing  crucifixes,  and  at  one  vil- 
lage there  was  a  noisy  Catechism  class  in  session. 
At  that  same  kraal  we  saw  a  fine-looking  young 
man  sitting  with  a  heavy  slave  log  and  chains 
about  his  neck  not  far  from  this  class  of  Romish 
devotees. 


To  Malange.  205 

In  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  we  turned  from 
the  swamps  up  on  to  a  ridge  and  inquired  at  the 
next  kraal  where  we  could  find  water  and  a  good 
place  to  camp.  We  were  directed  on  ahead,  but 
it  was  miles  to  the  next  village.  Again  the  only 
decent  place  to  camp  was  in  a  graveyard,  so  we 
had  to  cross  a  nasty  bit  of  swamp  and  camp  in 
the  open  on  the  other  side. 

It  took  us  some  time  to  find  a  place  for  our 
camp,  that  place  being  determined  by  the  discovery 
of  an  old,  dead  tree  which  would  serve  for  fire- 
wood. In  the  confusion  we  forgot  to  make  a  mark 
across  the  trail  to  show  our  men  that  we  had 
gone  no  further.  A  line  made  with  a  cane  or  a 
small  twig,  a  bunch  of  green  leaves,  or  even  a  few 
newly  plucked  flowers  placed  in  it,  is  the  native 
sign  that  that  trail  is  cut  off. 

As  Ave  had  intended  at  first  to  camp  just  be- 
side the  path,  and  later  on  moved  over  where  the 
tall  grass  hid  us,  we  failed  to  mark  the  trail,  and 
nearly  half  our  caravan  had  passed  by  unnoticed 
ere  we  thought  of  it,  and  we  could  not  be  certain 
whether  they  had  passed  on  or  had  taken  another 
path  some  distance  back. 

We  sent  out  the  carriers  who  had  arrived  when 
we  did,  and  they  hunted  and  halloed  in  vain.     So 


206    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

we  settled  down  to  the  inevitable  and  began  taking 
account  of  stock. 

Benjamin,  the  Angoni,  and  the  machilla  men 
were  with  us.  All  our  cooking  utensils,  dishes,  all 
the  boxes  of  food  but  one,  the  larger  tent,  and 
half  the  blankets  were  missing.  We  had  at  hand 
a  bag  of  cassava  meal,  a  few  tins  of  sardines,  a 
tin  of  jam,  and  one  of  cheese. 

The  Angoni  cooking-pot  was  the  only  one  in 
camp,  so  I  told  Benjamin  to  get  it  as  soon  as  the 
Angoni  had  finished  with  it,  and  cook  our  supper 
in  it.  To  be  sure,  the  pot  had  not  been  washed 
since  we  started  on  the  trail,  to  our  knowledge,  nor 
was  it  possible  for  Benjamin  to  clean  it  with  the 
scant  water  at  hand.  But  hunger  overcomes  fas- 
tidiousness, and  when  at  last  our  supper  was  served 
up  in  the  wash-basin,  not  one  of  us  hesitated.  The 
humor  of  that  anything  but  appetizing-looking 
mass  so  served  appealed  to  us  and  helped  our 
digestion.  Pulling  out  our  jack-knives,  we  lubri- 
cated chunks  of  the  mush  with  sardine  oil  or  jam, 
and  swallowed  it  down.  Thougli  none  of  us  had 
been  any  too  fond  of  the  stuff  before,  after  that 
night  even  the  bravest  of  us  faltered  at  the  sight 
and  smell  of  it. 

Dividing  up  the  few  blankets,  we  rolled  up  in 
them  without  undressing   and   spent   a  cold,   un- 


To  Malange.  207 

comfortable  night.  One  amusing  part  of  it  was 
that  the  next  morning  we  found  that  our  lost  car- 
riers, after  a  long  hunt  for  us,  had  come  back  to 
within  half  a  mile  and  had  camped  close  beside  a 
spring  of  water.  In  their  reconnoitering,  however, 
they  had  learned  from  some  natives  that  there  was 
a  Portuguese  store  not  far  away.  This  informa- 
tion changed  our  whole  line  of  travel,  and  instead 
of  by-paths  we  followed  a  line  of  trading-places 
clear  through  to  Malange. 

In  most  cases  these  stores  were  kept  by  half- 
castes,  although  a  few  of  them  were  in  charge  of 
Portuguese  men,  whose  native  wives  and  yellow 
children  were  always  in  evidence.  The  stores  con- 
tained some  cloth  of  very  poor  quality,  other  gen- 
eral trading  goods  in  small  quantity,  and  inevi- 
tably rum,  guns,  and  powder,  the  rum  being  the 
chief  article  and  the  most  profitable  for  the  trader. 
It  was  sold  in  glasses,  the  smallest  measuref  ul  being 
worth  about  a  penny. 

I  tried  in  vain  at  these  stores  to  buy  flour,  tea, 
milk,  or  European  provisions  of  any  sort.  Even 
the  Portuguese  seemed  to  live  on  native  food  en- 
tirely, so  that  they  neither  had  anything  in  their 
stores  nor  in  their  larders  to  let  us  have. 

Every  day  we  met  carriers  on  the  trail  loaded 
with  rum  and  cloth  for  the  traders.    All  along  the 


208    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

trail  now  were  graveyards  and  rum  shops,  the  one 
truly  the  complement  of  the  other,  the  graveyards 
being  greatly  in  the  majority.  Livingstone  men- 
tions the  gruesome  custom  of  these  natives  to  bury 
close  to  the  paths  and  roads,  and  states  that  at 
the  time  of  his  visit  to  the  country  the  Portuguese 
Government  was  taking  strict  measures  to  stop 
the  practice.  It  is  quite  evident  that  it  did  not 
succeed. 

As  to  the  rum  traffic,  most  of  the  European  na- 
tions have  united  in  an  agreement  not  to  permit 
the  sale  of  liquor  to  the  aborigines,  but  Portugal 
had  not  joined  it  until  recently,  and  an  edict  has 
gone  forth  that  in  ten  years'  time  all  such  rum- 
selling  must  be  stopped. 

We  were  now  on  a  high  ridge,  with  low,  swampy 
lands  on  both  sides.  This  ridge  had  been  well 
chosen,  from  the  standpoint  of  healthful  location, 
for  this  line  of  trading-stations,  but  it  seemed  a 
great  pity  to  have  it  given  over  so  completely  to 
the  rum  and  slave  traffic,  and  not  a  mission  station 
along  its  entire  length. 

Our  whole  caravan  was  in  dire  straits.  We 
could  not  get  enough  food  for  the  men,  as  the 
season  was  advancing  and  the  natives  had  little 
for  themselves.  We  had  used  up  nearly  all  our 
European  provisions,  so  that  we,  too,  had  to  eat 


To  Malange.  209 

about  the  same  food  as  our  carriers,  and  share  their 
hunger.  The  water  all  along  was  incredibly  bad. 
Of  a  dark-gray  color,  opaque,  frequently  taken 
from  mud-holes  where  the  cattle  had  waded,  it  was 
most  nauseating,  and  the  wonder  is  that  we  did 
not  all  come  down  with  violent  diarrhea  or  typhoid, 
but  strange  to  say,  it  apparently  did  us  no  harm. 
Our  shoes  were  worn  through,  our  feet  all  blistered, 
our  clothes  in  tatters. 

We  had  for  weeks  now  risen  by  4  A.  M.  and 
were  on  the  trail  by  the  first  streak  of  day.  At 
the  last  we  had  to  travel  all  day  long,  some  days 
making  as  high  as  twenty-eight  miles.  Our  joints 
were  sore  as  well  as  our  feet,  and  as  we  made  that 
"home  run"  we  had  to  use  up  nearly  the  last  ounce 
of  surplus  energy  in  our  bodies. 

One  day  two  men  passed  us  with  a  coarse  ham- 
mock between  them.  I  suspected  its  contents,  and 
so  passed  by  on  the  other  side.  Kendall  was  more 
curious.  He  stopped  the  men  and  lifted  the  cover 
to  peer  Into  the  macliilla,  where  he  found  the  hor- 
rible, swelled,  distorted  corpse  of  a  smallpox  vic- 
tim. He  refrained  from  further  examination  of 
other  burdens  met  along  the  way. 

Near  Malange  we  met  two  natives  in  the  road. 
They  had  a  yard  or  so  of  calico  thrown  over  their 
heads,  but  even  from  the  other  side  of  the  road 
14 


210    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

we  could  see  that  they  were  all  broken  out  with 
smallpox. 

Of  Quesole  we  had  known  nothing,  so  imagine 
our  astonishment  when,  ten  miles  east  of  Malange, 
we  came  to  a  pretty  little  town  with  a  genuine 
street  and  bonafide  stores,  orange  groves,  rubber 
groves,  and  a  hospital  where  three  beautiful  half- 
caste  nurses  were  dressed  in  the  height  of  European 
fashion. 

Here,  too,  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
was  issued  in  a  revised  edition  in  the  person  of  a 
Jewish  trader,  a  Mr.  Jacob  Amzalak,  who  insisted 
on  taking  us  into  his  well-appointed  dining-room 
and  giving  us  a  beefsteak  "breakfast,"  although  it 
was  past  the  noon  hour.  For  the  Portuguese  eat 
but  twice  a  day,  and  the  first  meal  is  from  ten  to 
eleven.  He  also  gave  our  men  food  for  the  first 
full,  satisfactory  meal  for  weeks. 

After  that  gracious  hospitality  we  went  on 
our  way  to  Malange  with  rejoicing.  No  doubt  we 
were  a  pretty  hard-looking  crowd  in  our  way-worn 
khaki  clothes,  coatless,  with  sleeves  rolled  to  the 
elbows,  displaying  brown,  brawny  arms,  while  most 
of  the  Portuguese  we  met  were  dressed  spick  and 
span  in  black  suits,  without  a  hint  of  the  tropics 
about  them. 

We  must  have  looked  like  desperate  characters, 


To  Malange.  211 

for  some  natives  who  were  in  town  shopping  car- 
ried the  news  to  their  homes,  twenty-five  miles  away, 
that  three  Enghshmen  had  arrived,  with  their 
sleeves  rolled  up  and  armed  with  rifles,  and  prob- 
ably were  going  to  seize  Angola  from  the  Portu- 
guese. 

Malange  at  last !  The  long,  long  trail  through 
the  wilderness  lay  behind  us !  We  had  reached  our 
most  advanced  post  of  missions  from  Loanda  and 
were  greeted  by  Mr.  Wm.  Miller,  from  Baltimore, 
a  German,  who  has  been  out  there  in  our  mission 
for  nearly  twenty  years  without  a  furlough  which 
he  positively  refuses  to  take,  as  he  has  good  health 
and  feels  that  the  work  needs  him. 

Malange  at  last !  Malange  with  its  large, 
white  governor's  mansion,  its  wide  streets,  its  squads 
of  native  soldiers,  who  drill  in  the  most  go-as-you- 
please  manner,  its  gaily  clad  natives,  many  show- 
ing the  effects  of  rum  and  all  of  them  familiar  and 
impudent,  the  effects  of  contact  with  theoretical 
civilization. 

Malange  and  food,  shelter,  friends  at  last !  We 
could  hardly  realize  it.  This  town  is  three  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  from  the  coast,  and  is  the  farthest 
inland  station  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission 
in  Angola.  Not  expecting  us,  Brother  Miller's 
supper  of  native  honey  and  that  sour  mush  on  which 


212    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

we  had  had  to  exist  for  weeks  was  on  the  table.  Next 
door  was  a  Portuguese  restaurant,  and  it  did  not 
take  us  long  to  decide  in  favor  of  the  restaurant, 
where  we  could  not  only  have  a  fine  European  meal, 
but  have  the  satisfaction  of  feeling  that  we  were 
really  alive  and  among  people  again. 

There  was  the  unutterable  relief  that  the  long 
strain  was  over.  To  be  sure,  we  had  yet  a  few 
days  of  hard  tramping  ahead  of  us,  but  that  Avas 
varied  daily  by  groups  of  friends  to  greet  and 
welcome  us  at  the  various  stations  we  visited. 

Malange  at  last !  Why,  if  we  had  had  the 
money  to  spare  (which  we  did  not)  we  could  have 
sent  a  cable  from  Malange  that  night  to  our  friends 
at  home.  It  is  only  fair  to  admit  that  the  telegraph 
service  in  Angola  has  not  reached  perfection  yet, 
and  one  might  walk  from  Malange  to  Loanda  and 
then  get  there  ahead  of  the  telegram,  quite  likely. 
Still  the  sight  of  those  magic  wires  was  thrilling 
after  so  many  weeks  in  the  wilds. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
RETROSPECT. 

The  next  day  we  accompanied  Brother  Miller 
out  seven  miles,  to  Quessua.  On  our  arrival  we 
were  most  delightfully  greeted  with  the  old  North- 
western University  yell,  given  by  Rev.  Charles  S. 
Schreiber,  in  charge  of  the  Mission,  and  two  other 
college  friends,  Brothers  Kipp  and  Harris,  from 
Quiongua  and  Pungo  Andongo,  who  were  making 
a  tour  of  the  out-stations  and  had  reached  Ques- 
sua the  day  before,  about  the  time  that  we  reached 
Malange. 

Quessua  is  an  ideal  site  for  an  industrial  mis- 
sion. It  is  about  six  miles  from  Malange,  located 
at  the  foot  of  a  high  mountain,  healthful  and 
beautiful.  The  soil  is  rich  and  can  easily  be  irri- 
gated from  a  stream  fed  by  several  springs  of  crys- 
tal water  which  gush  out  of  the  mountain. 

On  one  side  of  the  mountain  stream  is  the  boys' 

school,   and  on  the   other  side,   up   nearer  to   the 

mountain,  is  the  school  of  the  Woman's  Foreign 

Missionary  Society,  under  the  care  of  Miss  Susan 

213 


214    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

Collins  and  Miss  Martha  Drummer.  The  enroll- 
ment in  the  girls'  school  at  the  time  of  our  visit 
was  twenty-four,  but  has  increased  considerably 
since. 

The  railroad  from  Loanda  will  reach  Malange 
in  1909,  and  will  greatly  enhance  the  value  of 
Quessua  as  the  site  of  a  central  training  institution. 

We  visited  the  out-station  at  Nenzele,  which 
is  under  the  care  of  John  Webba  and  his  wife, 
Miriam,  natives  of  the  Congo,  who  were  erstwhile 
Mrs.  Springer's  pupils  at  Isangila  and  Vivi,  and 
also  her  teachers  in  the  Kifiote.  They  are  doing  a 
splendid  work.  These  two  are  the  first  native  Afri- 
cans baptized  by  Bishop  Hartzell. 

We  next  visited  Pungo  Andongo,  where  the 
Rev.  A.  E.  Harris  and  wife  were  in  charge.  In 
less  than  two  weeks  after  our  visit  Brother  Harris 
laid  down  his  work  and  entered  upon  his  eternal 
reward. 

Pungo  nestles  among  some  famous  gigantic 
boulders  which  rise  from  the  plain  like  some  colossal 
medieval  fortress,  and  which  are  visible  for  long 
distances.  The  Mission  property  is  just  across  the 
street  from  the  house  (now  in  ruins),  where  Living- 
stone was  entertained  while  in  Pungo.  This  Mis- 
sion offers  a  field  for  extensive  evangelistic  work 
among    the    surrounding    villages.      Sickness    and 


> 

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o 
td 

> 

pi 

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d 

o 

o 
> 

pi 


o 

o 


Retrospect.  215 

death  had  so  reduced  the  workers  in  Angola  that 
for  some  time  Pungo  had  been  deprived  of  resident 
workers.  On  the  death  of  Brother  Harris,  the 
Rev.  Walter  B.  Williams  was  at  once  transferred 
from  Quiongua,  and  recent  news  tells  of  a  wide- 
spread revival  under  his  ministry. 

Fifteen  miles  west  of  Pungo  is  Quiongua,  where 
the  Rev.  Ray  B.  Kipp  is  in  charge.  Here  we  left 
the  four  boys  who  had  marched  across  with  us  to 
go  to  school — Jacob,  Songoro,  Sondo,  and  Jim — 
all  of  whom  are  doing  well  and  are  being  trained 
for  future  Christian  service  in  the  neglected  in- 
terior. 

This  station  has  an  excellent  equipment  of 
eight  or  ten  substantial  buildings,  several  of  them 
of  stone  quarried  from  an  adjoining  hill,  and  it 
represents  for  the  most  part  the  results  of  the 
personal  labors  of  the  Rev.  W.  P.  Dodson,  the 
Superintendent  for  several  of  its  early  years,  and 
of  the  Rev.  Amos  E.  Withey,  the  Presiding  Elder 
of  the  Angola  Mission  during  Bishop  Taylor's 
administration,  and  of  his  son  Herbert.  This  sta- 
tion was  built  on  a  foundation  of  faith  and  prayer, 
accompanied  by  hard  work  if  ever  any  mission  was. 

Herbert  C.  Withey  reached  Angola  with  his 
parents  at  the  age  of  twelve,  and  soon  acquired  a 
rare  mastery  of  the  language,  which  has  enabled 


216    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

him,  in  addition  to  sharing  in  the  general  activities 
of  the  INIission,  to  render  unusual  service  in  trans- 
lation work,  his  latest  contribution  being  the  trans- 
lation of  the  entire  New  Testament  into  the  Kim- 
bundu  language. 

Besides  the  growing  bo3's'  school  there  is  a 
much-needed  girls'  school,  heroically  started  by 
Mrs.  Mary  B.  Shuett  with  almost  no  funds  at  all. 
After  Mrs.  Harris  went  to  Loanda,  Miss  Lettie 
Mason  was  sent  to  Quiongua,  to  be  with  Mrs. 
Shuett.  These  two  women  are  bravely  making 
great  advances  against  heathenism's  stronghold — 
its  womanhood.  An  urgent  need  here  is  for  funds 
to  build  a  girls'  school. 

We  took  the  train  at  Quisenge,  about  twenty- 
five  miles  north  of  Pungo  Andongo,  and  went  down 
to  Loanda,  where  we  were  met  by  the  Rev.  W.  P. 
Dodson,  who,  in  addition  to  his  duties  as  Presiding 
Elder,  was  in  charge  of  this  station  while  the  Rev. 
Robert  Shields  and  wife  were  home  on  furlough. 
Associated  with  them  were  Miss  Mason  and  Miss 
Samuelson  (now  Mrs.  Schreiber)  and  Miss  Flor- 
inda  Bessa,  a  young  colored  woman  of  marked 
ability,  who  has  been  educated  in  our  ^Mission. 
Loanda  is  a  large  city  on  the  sea  and  is  the  capital 
of  the  province  of  Loanda. 

The  Avork  in  Loanda  is  most  encouraging,  only 


Retrospect.  217 

so  very  limited  in  extent  as  compared  with  the  field 
and  the  opportunities  at  hand.  There  is  a  fine, 
mixed  day  school  taught  in  Portuguese,  a  Kim- 
bundu  school  in  the  native  settlement,  and  much 
evangelistic  work  is  being  done.  The  imperative 
need  of  a  boarding-school  for  half-caste  girls  has 
been  partly  met  by  the  gift  of  $5,000  toward  a 
building  by  the  same  liberal  friend  who  gave 
$5,000  for  the  girls'  dormitory  at  Old  Umtali. 
There  is  a  young  woman  ready  to  go  there,  and 
the  only  lack  now  is  the  money  to  send  her  out. 
The  native  Church  in  Loanda  has  a  large  member- 
ship and  is  spiritual  and  aggressive. 

Taking  the  work  in  Angola  as  a  whole,  I  was 
very  pleasantly  surprised  to  find  it  so  flourishing 
despite  the  fact  that  it  is  so  sadly  undermanned. 

When  Bishop  Wm.  Taylor  arrived  in  Angola 
in  1885,  he  had  with  him  one  of  the  most  heroic 
bands  of  missionaries  to  be  found  anywhere.  At 
that  time  the  trail  to  the  interior  was  by  way  of 
Dondo,  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Quanza 
River.  This  was  also  the  route  mapped  out  for 
the  future  railroad.  It  was  the  course  followed  by 
Livingstone.  Bishop  Taylor  naturally  placed  his 
chain  of  mission  stations  along  that  trade  route. 
However,  political  influence  changed  the  course  of 
the   railroad   and   left   Dondo   financially   wrecked 


218    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

and  practically  abandoned  by  both  white  men  and 
natives,  so  that  there  was  nothing  left  for  our  Mis- 
sion to  do  but  to  withdraw.  Nangepepo  was  also 
closed,  and  Quiongua  was  considerably  affected 
though  able  to  survive,  and  recently  to  recover  in 
a  great  measure  its  equilibrium. 

This  financial  catastrophe  which  fell  on  some 
of  the  oldest  settlements  in  Angola  occurred  in  the 
latter  part  of  Bishop  Taylor's  administration,  when 
he  was  too  weak  physically  to  give  his  missionaries 
the  support  needed. 

It  was  thus  that  Bishop  Hartzell  found  them 
twelve  years  ago  and  the  process  of  reconstruction 
began.  Since  then,  in  spite  of  no  little  opposition 
from  various  quarters,  in  spite  of  repeated  efforts 
of  traders  and  others  to  drive  our  people  out,  in 
spite  of  the  great  lack  of  funds  and  altogether  too 
few  workers, — much  has  been  accomplished,  and 
the  fields  of  Angola  are  already  ripe  for  a  rich 
and  extensive  harvest  if  only  there  be  the  reapers 
to  gather  it  in. 

We  were  interested  to  learn  further  from  the 
missionaries  and  from  the  records  of  the  original 
purposes  of  Bishop  Taylor  and  his  workers  in  be- 
ginning the  work  in  Angola,  which  was  to  penetrate 
as  rapidly  as  possible  into  the  very  center  of  the 
continent,  at  least  one  thousand  miles,  building  up 


Retrospect.  219 

missions  along  the  way  to  reach  the  people  of  the 
country  traversed,  and  also  to  serve  as  stations  in 
the  transport  of  supplies  to  the  interior. 

The  extension  of  the  work  due  east  of  Loanda, 
past  Malange,  would  have  brought  them  in  a 
thousand  miles  to  the  northern  part  of  the  mineral 
belt  now  being  developed  by  the  Tanganyika  Con- 
cessions, Limited,  right  in  the  very  heart  of  South 
Central  Africa. 

Among  the  districts  toward  the  interior  that  it 
was  definitely  planned  at  that  time  to  occupy,  were 
the  countries  of  the  Bachiokwe,  or  Kioko,  and  of 
the  Lunda. 

At  the  first  Conference  of  the  mission  in  Lo- 
anda, in  May,  1885,  Dr.  W.  R.  Summers,  M.  D., 
one  of  the  party,  lectured  on  the  Kioko  country, 
and  three  missionaries  were  designated  for  that 
field.  The  plan  of  immediate  occupation  was  de- 
ferred, however,  for  on  visiting  Dondo  the  Chefe 
and  a  few  other  citizens  waited  on  the  Bishop  with 
the  request  that  he  establish  a  mission  in  Dondo. 
"So  now,"  the  record  runs,  "the  question  was  pend- 
ing whether  it  might  not  be  the  will  of  God  that 
Rev.  C.  L.  Davenport,  Mary  Davenport,  M.  D., 
and  C.  M.  McLean,  whom  we  had  thought  to  sta- 
tion in  the  Kioko  country,  should  not  for  the  pres- 
ent stop  and  found  a  mission  in  Dondo." 


220    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

A  few  weeks  later,  while  at  Malange,  "I  met  a 
man,"  wrote  Bishop  Taylor,  "who  had  just  arrived 
from  the  interior.  We  learned  from  him  and  from 
Snr.  Machado  that  he  was  one  of  three  Portuguese 
traders  who  had  a  store  in  the  Lunda  country,  six 
hundred  miles  east,  and  that  this  man  came  out 
every  year  and  took  back  a  store  of  goods  which 
he  ordered  from  Lisbon  and  waited  in  Malange  six 
months  for  their  arrival. 

"I  drew  out  the  man  from  the  interior,  and  the 
old  residents  present  assured  me  that  the  people 
in  the  far  interior  were  very  anxious  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  schools  and  Christian  missions  among 
them,  all  of  which  accorded  with  what  I  had  read 
from  the  pens  of  Livingstone  and  Stanley. 

"So  I  remarked  to  Brother  C.  W.  Gordon  that 
possibly  the  Lord  would  have  him  mount  a  bull  and 
go  with  said  trader  to  Lunda  country  and  quietly 
learn  the  language  and  prepare  the  way  for  a  force 
to  follow  in  1887.  The  conclusion  we  reached  was 
to  put  Lunda  on  our  list  of  appointments  and 
put  his  name  down  for  it,  subject  to  providential 
developments.  As  he  had  six  months  leeway,  he 
was  to  proceed  with  the  school  work  in  INIalange, 
master  the  Portuguese  language,  and  watch  the 
movements  of  the  pillar  and  cloud." 

Dr.  Summers  had  preceded  the  main  party  to 


Retrospect.  221 

Angola  and  explored  extensively  about  and  to  the 
east  of  Malange.  He  was  less  patient  than  the 
others  at  delaying  the  immediate  advance  to  the 
interior,  and  in  July,  1886,  having  fitted  out  an 
expedition  with  the  receipts  from  his  practice,  he 
pressed  on  to  the  east,  through  the  northern  part 
of  the  Lunda  territory  to  the  Tushilange  country. 
There,  several  months  after  reaching  the  country, 
as  a  result  largely  of  exhaustion  arising  from  pro- 
longed and  constant  attendance  upon  a  patient 
whom  he  found  very  ill,  he  was  stricken,  and  laid 
down  his  life. 

The  work  of  building  up  and  maintaining  the 
stations  as  far  as  Malange,  350  miles  from  the 
coast,  taxed  the  strength  and  resources  of  the  party 
of  heroic  missionaries,  and  while  thought  and 
prayer  were  ever  intent  upon  the  "regions  beyond" 
further  to  the  interior,  yet  sickness  and  death  so 
reduced  their  ranks  that,  though  they  have  held 
steadfastly  to  the  hope  of  entering  the  Lunda 
country,  that  hope  has  not  yet  been  realized. 

On  learning  more  about  the  navigable  rivers  of 
the  interior,  tributaries  of  the  Congo,  Bishop  Tay- 
lor hoped  to  reach  the  center  of  the  Lunda  country 
by  boat,  up  the  Lower  Congo  and  the  Kassai,  his 
passion  ever  being  to  reach  the  untouched  interior. 

In  the  early  nineties  one  of  his  pioneer  mission- 


222    The  Heart  of  Central  Africa. 

aries  on  the  Lower  Congo,  Wm.  Rasmussen,  ex- 
pressed it  as  his  conviction  that  when  the  great 
Congo  basin  was  fully  opened  up  and  developed, 
industrially  and  religiously,  that  it  would  be  by 
the  gradual  extension  of  operations  from  the 
healthy  plateau  on  the  south,  extending  north  from 
Cape  Town,  a  prophecy  that  is  now  being  fulfilled. 

That  rich  and  extensive  mineral  field  on  the 
high  and  healthy  divide  on  the  southern  border  of 
the  Congo  basin  was  pegged  out  but  a  few  years 
ago,  as  we  have  seen,  and  large  operations  are  be- 
ing pushed  for  its  development.  The  Cape-to- 
Cairo  Railway  is  approaching  that  field  from  the 
southeast.  From  the  mineral  belt  three  lines  of 
railroad  will  be  built;  one,  the  extension  of  the 
Cape-to-Cairo  Railway,  will  be  constructed  north  to 
the  navigable  Lualaba,  along  which  by  boat  and 
rail  there  will  be  connection  with  Stanleyville,  on 
the  Upper  Congo,  and  from  there  a  line  of  railroad 
will  be  built  in  a  northeasterly  direction  to  Lado, 
on  the  navigable  Nile,  whence  there  is  now  river 
and  rail  connection  Avith  Cairo. 

Another  line  of  railroad  is  proposed  to  run 
from  the  mineral  belt  in  a  northwesterly  direction 
to  the  Lower  Congo,  diagonally  across  the  very 
center  of  the  Congo  basin,  and  the  third  railroad 
is  being  built  from  the  excellent  natural  harbor  at 
Loblto  Bay,  on  the  west  coast,  and  will  pass  along 


Retrospect.  223 

the  southern  edge  of  the  Congo  basin  and  connect 
with  the  other  hnes  on  the  mineral  belt. 

Thus  through  that  remote  interior  of  Africa, 
so  earnestly  considered  and  planned  for  two  dec- 
ades ago,  and  which  was  then  so  difficult  of  ac- 
cess, there  is  now  being  -built  the  great  steel  high- 
way of  the  continent  that  will  connect  the  southern 
and  northern  coasts,  and  other  lines  of  railroad 
will  give  direct  access  to  this  region  from  the  east 
and  west  coasts. 

From  being  the  bloody  hunting  ground  of  slave 
raiders  from  east  and  west,  this  section  is  destined 
to  become  one  of  the  greatest  mining  centers  of 
the  world.  Favored  with  a  central,  geographical 
position,  a  high  elevation,  a  salubrious  climate,  fer- 
tile soil,  and  a  heavy  rainfall,  and  over  and  above 
all  these  being  what  is  probably  the  very  richest 
copper  and  mineral  field  in  the  world,  it  can  be 
readily  foreseen  that  in  only  a  very  few  years  this 
will  be  a  mining  center  equal  to,  if  not  eclipsing, 
Johannesburg. 

Not  only  will  white  people  of  all  nations  flock 
to  these  mines,  but  also  natives  from  all  over  the 
continent  by  the  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands. 
As  a  strategic  center  for  evangelistic  activities  and 
for  radiating  the  Light  of  the  Gospel,  this  mineral 
belt  will  doubtless  be  unsurpassed  throughout  the 
Continent  of  Africa. 


DATE  DUE 

mS^^^^^^^^^^^f, 

^^^■■■jM 

CAYLORO 

PRINTED  INUS. A. 

The  heart  of  Central  Africa;  mineral 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


